Indomitable
by ShaperV
Summary: Naruto isn’t a moron. Jiraiya isn’t a clueless loser. The Kyuubi doesn’t intend to die. Three simple facts that will change the course of history. Eventual Naruto/Multi
1. Moments on the Road

Summary: Naruto isn't a moron. Jiraiya isn't a pathetic loser. Kyuubi doesn't intend to die. Three simple facts that will change the course of history.

**Author's Note:** I've never understood why so many people think they need to give Naruto a bunch of new bloodlines and artifacts to write a Super!Naruto story. After all, the regular canon Naruto already has everything he needs to reach godlike levels of power. All you have to do is give him a little more brains, and a teacher who'll actually teach…

--oOoOo-- oOoOo-- oOoOo--

_**Northern Fire Country, three weeks into the training trip with Jiraiya**_

"So, you're saying that for ninja every conversation is like a battle?" Naruto frowned in thought as he trudged up the steep mountain road. "That can't be right. What about friends and stuff?"

The clone behind him was too busy trying to make a Rasengan to join the conversation. He was finally getting the hang of doing it with two hands instead of four, but it still took all his concentration.

Jiraiya chuckled, and adjusted his pack. "You spar with your friends, don't you? Besides, half your friends are girls, and a conversation with them is always a battle. Or haven't you figured out yet that when a girl starts talking to you about nothing in particular, she's challenging you to make her like you?"

"You really are obsessed with that perverted stuff, aren't you?"

"Yeah, and everyone knows it, kid. So you know what foreign kages do when they want to manipulate me? They send their hottest kunoichi babes to seduce me into going along with their plans. Oh, the horror! The agony! Maybe I should learn to overcome my weakness, so they'll send assassins after me instead?"

Naruto peered up at the sanin suspiciously. "You're saying it's all an act? I don't think I'm buying that."

"Heh. Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. Maybe I'm just a hopeless lecher, but sometimes I manage to control my impulses. Maybe it's all an act, and I let them get their way on little things so they'll be surprised when it doesn't work on something important. Oh, here's a good one: maybe I'm secretly a master of perverted mind control techniques, and I lure Konoha's enemies into sending me their best kunoichi so I can turn them to my side!"

"My point, kid, is that elite ninja are constantly playing mind games like that about everything. Of course we all know about the game, so we're always trying to figure out what the other guy is really up to without giving away our own ploys. Among friends it's just another kind of practice, but when foreign ninja are involved it can be deadly serious. So when someone from Konoha waves an obvious weakness or mystery or inconsistency in front of your face, that's like inviting you to spar with them. It takes a lot of work to get good enough to fool other ninja for long, and the best way to get there is to practice with your comrades."

"Wow!" Naruto dashed in front of the older ninja, hopping excitedly. "So, you're saying if Kakashi-sensei is always late it's like he's inviting us to try to spy on him, or get him in trouble for it?"

"Yep. Good luck finding him, though, and he's usually got his ass covered."

"What about when Hinata turns red and does that weird fainting thing?"

Jiraiya snickered. "She's got a secret you should be trying to figure out."

"What about when Sakura hits me for asking her out?"

"Ah, that's the greatest game of all. Think of it this way: trying to get a girl to like you is like challenging her to a duel. If you lose she rejects you. Fight to a draw and you get to go on dates, kiss, hold hands, that kind of thing. Win and she'll fall for you. On that scale, what you do with Sakura is like challenging Sasuke to a grudge match and then knocking yourself out on a tree branch before you even step in the ring."

"Ouch." The genin replied.

"Brutal, but true." commented the clone. "She won't even talk to us."

"Well, who knows, maybe one of these days you'll find an expert on women who's willing to train you. Now, I've told you all this straight out because it's pretty obvious you didn't have a clue what was going on, but don't expect me to be so obvious next time. You're supposed to be learning to figure this stuff out on your own, you know."

"I am? Huh. Well, ok, I just never thought about it like that before. Ok pervy sensei, I'll try to pay more attention to this verbal sparring stuff."

The trio continued up the trail for some miles, both lost in thought. Finally the trail leveled out, and they stopped for lunch. "Hey, Jiraiya, can you show me another move to practice while we walk? The Rasengan is cool, but doing the same thing all day gets old after awhile."

"Teach me this, show me that, nag, nag, nag. We don't have time for training today kid, I've got to get to that hot spring resort before the bikini festival starts. You never know, they might need another judge…" The toad sage drifted off into daydreams while rummaging around in his pack.

Naruto opened his mouth to complain…and stopped, frozen, as an expression of dawning realization appeared on his face. He looked at the clone, who shrugged. Looked back at the toad sage, who was now flipping through a little black-bound notebook. Blinked.

Grinned.

A moment later a half-dozen buxom blond kunoichi filled the clearing, dressed in a considerably abbreviated version of Naruto's usual orange jumpsuit. "Oh, Jiraiya-sama!" they chorused. "Please teach us something!"

"Ha! Now that's what I'm talking about, kiddo!"

--oOoOo--

_**Wave Country coastline, four months on the road**_

A dozen orange-clad clones of both sexes darted among the moonlit breakers in an endless game of Rasengan tag, dodging and striking with the lighting speed of the Heavenly Fist taijutsu style. Two more observed their antics, occasionally calling up fresh clones to replace the inevitable casualties. The original sat under a tree twenty yards inland, apparently meditating, while ominous wisps of deadly red chakra wove lazily through the air around him.

"If the seal breaks, I die. If I die, you get dragged to hell with me. So I guess we're stuck with each other."

In a dank cave that existed only in Naruto's mind, the nine-tailed fox peered down through the bars of its prison. "I was old before your kind came down from the trees, idiot child, and I have no intention of dying in this irritating little trap."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." The young ninja crossed his arms and glared up at the demonic beast. "If you're so anxious to live, don't be so stingy when I need to use your chakra."

"Use too much and it will poison you, little fool. Human bodies aren't made to channel youki. You've only survived this long because of your little healing talent, and it has its limits."

"Yeah, what's up with that, anyway? I always wondered if it was something you were doing, or if I had some kind of bloodline power."

"Of course it's a bloodline, idiot. A remnant of the perfect health of the elder kami, in fact. No doubt some distance ancestor of yours was one of their playthings."

"Hey!"

The fox chuckled. "You should be grateful, brat. Without that bloodline my youki would have burned you to ash the first time you called on it. As it is most of your power is consumed merely surviving the constant exposure to the power that flows through the seal."

"Really? So, if I quit using your chakra I'd heal even faster? How fast are we talking here?"

"Fast enough to repair any injury that isn't instantly lethal in a matter of minutes. Who knows, it might even cure whatever affliction makes you so stupid." The Kyuubi replied. "But it isn't that easy. The seal constantly steals bits of my power and forces them into your chakra circulatory system. You'd have to modify the seal, or block the energy flow somehow."

"Hmm. I bet I could talk pervy-sensei into doing that if I work at it." Naruto gazed up at the bars of the prison speculatively. "Yeah, let him think I came up with this myself, and just want to test it out. Then when it works we'll just leave it running…"

_Yes!_ The Kyuubi thought to itself. _Perfect health includes immortality, silly monkey, so no natural death for you. Give me a century to work at it without my chakra being stolen and even this seal will eventually break._

--oOoOo--

_A hotel in Wind Country, eight months on the road_

Naruto marshaled his chakra, carefully forming the odd seal Jiraiya had described earlier that day, and pressed home his attack. But his clone met him head-on, resisting the allegedly devastating technique without apparent effort.

Maybe he wasn't doing it right?

He adjusted his technique as he grappled with her, trying to find the right pattern. The technique wasn't nearly as complicated as Rasengan, but getting it right based on just a verbal description was tough. Should he use less chakra? More? Maybe a lot more?

The clone shuddered, and for a second he thought he'd gotten it. Then she took advantage of his distraction to flip him over on the bed and straddle him.

"Mmmmp!" He was so startled he dropped the technique.

She broke the kiss and pulled away, but she was still sitting on him. Her breasts shifted beneath her loose nightgown as she moved, and Naruto suddenly found himself noticing just how beautiful his "sexy" form was.

"Kissing a guy is really weird." She commented. "I feel like I should hate it, but I don't think I do, but I think I'd be freaking out if I was a guy right now. Are you sure you won't go girl for this?"

"I'm not sure I want to learn this stupid 'Kiss of Surrender' technique at all. What are you doing, anyway?"

She blushed. "I don't know. I just…at first it didn't do anything, but then you changed something, and bam! I couldn't help it, I just had to kiss you back."

"So instead of surrendering, it makes you attack me? That's stupid."

"Well, you know he isn't going to teach us that wind edge thing until we get this right, so we'd better give it another try." She let the boy up with a nervous grin.

"Ok, but I think I am gonna go girl. You're making me worry about what kind of memories you're gonna give me when this is done."

"Good call."

Another ten minutes of chakra-laced kisses brought them no closer to the "instant surrender" effect Jiraiya claimed this technique was for, but Naruto was discovering that kissing a sexy girl is a lot of fun even if she's really you. He also noted that the technique did seem to be having _some_ kind of effect on his clone.

"Are you ok?" The original asked. "You look like Hinata did that time I checked her temperature with my forehead."

"If this is what Hinata was feeling, I'm sorry we spent all those years chasing after Sakura." The clone giggled. "I feel like that time we accidentally saw Sakura bathing, but about a hundred times stronger. Still more likely to pin you down and kiss you senseless than surrender, though."

"Oh. Um, I have no idea what to say to that, so I'm just going to ignore it, ok?"

The clone giggled again.

"Huh. Anyway, this kinda sucks. I can feel my chakra going out, but it's like there's some kind of barrier stopping it and I can't push through."

"Push through?" The clone shot up, suddenly alert. "No, don't do that! I don't think that would work, and if it did you'd probably pop me. I think there's more a rhythm to it. Go soft at first, and kind of touch and tease and brush up against me right way, and then I relax and open up and you just push right into me and… oh god, I sound like one of pervo-sensei's books, don't I?"

She looked so dismayed that Naruto had to laugh. "Hey, no sweat. The cool thing about talking to yourself is you don't have to get embarrassed, right? But I've got no idea what you're trying to say."

"Damn. Sorry, I just can't figure out how to put it in words. Hey, I know. I'll just pop myself, and then I won't have to explain it because you'll already know!"

Naruto was momentarily stunned by the flood of memories she received as the clone dismissed herself. She also wasn't sure it was going to help, since it wasn't at all obvious what the connection was between her chakra manipulations and the sensations her 'victim' felt.

So she summoned a fresh clone, and tried again. She had more than enough chakra to dispel and re-form the clone after every experiment, which was almost as good as being able to feel both sides of the experience at once. It wasn't long before she started to get a handle on which sensation went with which kind of chakra flow. There was a subtle feedback in the interaction of their chakra, and she was learning to read it. Her clone's chakra was definitely responding to the technique. Flowing, pulsing, pushing and pulling…

"Mmmmph!" The clone clutched frantically at her shoulders, pressing their firm breasts together as she trembled and moaned in her maker's arms. A moment later she collapsed, nearly falling off the bed before Naruto caught her.

"Hey, was that it? Did it work?" Naruto observed his clone's apparent helplessness excitedly.

"Oh, god. That was…that was…I don't know what the heck that was, but wow. Now I understand why he called this the knockout technique no kunoichi would want to resist. Do it again? Please?"

Naruto laughed. "What, you like being helpless?"

The clone squirmed. "No! But it feels so damned good. I never thought anything could feel like that! Please, do me again before you pop me."

"Ok, ok. I guess I do need to practice…"

--oOoOo--

_**Snow Country, twelve months on the road**_

The blonde jinchuuriki perched atop a rocky peak overlooking miles of desolate glacier. The howling blizzard had long since driven all sensible folk indoors for the night, but Naruto was never one to let a little weather get in the way of training. Chakra kept his feet firmly stuck to the massive bolder that formed the mountain's summit, while more chakra formed a visible aura of power around him that blunted the force of the wind and kept the bitter cold at bay.

"This time for sure!" He cried, once more forming a slight variation on the familiar set of seals. Hundreds of chakra tendrils leaked out into the storm, merging with the winds, forming a vortex of elemental power that swirled furiously around the young ninja.

"Wind Clone Technique!"

A massive surge of chakra flowed into the vortex as he completed the experimental technique, and it collapsed into a humanoid form. It wavered for a moment, and resolved into the unmistakable figure of his female alter-ego.

Naked, of course.

"It worked!" Naruto jumped in excitement, remembering too late where he was. A hurricane-force blast of snow-laden wind blew him right off the mountain peak.

The girl giggled.

Two knives sheathed in wind chakra flew out of the darkness to sink hilt-deep in the weathered granite, trailing combat wire that immediately went taut. A moment later Naruto reappeared, climbing hand-over-hand down the wires until he finally got within arm's reach of the ground. He slapped a hand down to stick to the stone, and pulled himself prone.

The girl broke into laughter, a clear sound like chiming bells. She stood lightly, unanchored, her long hair whipping furiously in the wind.

"Ok, that was dumb." Naruto admitted, climbing to his feet as he renewed his protective cocoon. He took his first real look at the clone, and frowned. "You aren't really me, are you?"

"Oh, is that what you were trying to do?" The girl replied. "Boy, did you mess that one up. No, silly, I'm Sirasa of the Biting Frost. That tickling you were doing earlier got my attention, and then you made this cool chakra wind chime thing and I just had to try it out." She looked at her hands curiously, curling her fingers as if trying to figure out what they were for.

The old Naruto would have been flummoxed. But the months of practice were finally teaching him how to pay attention, and he'd always been good at thinking on his feet. "I'm Naruto. Um…I don't know much about the spirit world. Are you saying you're some kind of wind spirit?"

She grinned. "You could say that. All this," she made a sweeping gesture taking in the whole of the storm-wracked sky. "is me. But I paint the mountains all the time. I've never been in a mortal form before." She looked down at herself, pushing her breasts aside for a better view. "It's strange, but kind of cool."

"Well, tell you what. If you can help me figure out what's wrong with my technique, I'll keep that body running for a few days so you can play around with it. It's probably pretty fragile, but I think I can re-form it for you if it gets dispelled."

"Really? That sounds like fun. But if you're a bargainer, don't you want a big contract written in blood with rules and penalties and stuff?"

Now Naruto laughed. "I'm not that kind of guy. I just like to do stuff for my friends, and sometimes they do things for me. Would you like to be friends, Sira-chan?"

She eyed him speculatively. _There's something about this man…he has the Spark! He might be a kami some day. And that grouchy old fox is sealed in him, how odd. I bet he'll have lots of interesting stories to tell, and if I hang out with him there's no telling what kinds of interesting things might happen._

"Sure!"

--oOoOo--

_**Sea Country, eighteen months on the road**_

Naruto surveyed the improvised training grounds with a satisfied smile. Normally he kept his clone use low-key to avoid attracting attention, but this island was remote enough that there wasn't much chance of visitors. So today, nearly a hundred clones swarmed over the area.

Some practiced taijutsu, both singly and in teams. Their movements were fast and precise, but the wind clones stood out from their shadow clone brothers by virtue of their inhuman speed. Some still practiced bare-handed, but these days most fought with combat knives sheathed in wind chakra. Others drilled with thrown weapons. He'd long since mastered kunai and shuriken, and using combat wire to guide them wasn't much harder. But he'd found out about chakra strings a couple of months ago, and he was still mastering the art of directing his weapons with them.

A surprisingly large group studied seals, working their way through the scrolls on exploding tags and storage seals Jiraiya had lent him. A few adventurous clones played with ideas for original seals, but these were well away from the main training ground. There were a million ways to get a seal wrong, and his efforts were still more likely to explode than do anything useful.

The contingent doing ninjutsu drills were by far the biggest chakra drain, but he'd long since concluded that they were essential. Sparring with Jiraiya had taught him that any jutsu that takes more than a second is useless in close combat, and his growing jutsu repertoire was a big part of his fighting style. So he drilled relentlessly, working to make his new wind techniques as fast as his Rasengan and Shadow Clone.

A girl-clone wandered by with a Rasengan in each hand and a leaf balanced on her nose, and he grimaced. Chakra control drills were boring as heck, but even after all this time his control still needed work. Jiraiya called it "pretty good", but he needed to be a lot better if he was ever going to learn medical techniques.

A package of new memories surfaced, courtesy of a clone on the other side of the island, and his smile returned. New techniques were his favorite kind of training, and he had three of them in progress. The self-sustaining clone idea wasn't going very well, but his Memory Clone idea was working perfectly. Why waste chakra creating and dispelling a whole clone if all he wanted to do was send himself a message? Just clone the memories you want, and send them over the link directly.

A distant explosion echoed through the trees, and the memories of a recently-dispersed clone arrived.

"Ok, so combining Rasengan with wind chakra is going to be tough. That's ok, I've got plenty of time to work on in. Jiraiya said he'd need a week or two to infiltrate that kunoichi cell and pump them for information…"

"To much information!" One of his clones called. "Don't want to think about how the old pervert does it."

"Um, yeah." Old people naked. Ick.

Jiraiya claimed that his perverted techniques were the best, but Naruto wasn't too impressed. His girl-self always complained they were about as subtle as being hit on the head with a lust hammer. His own variants were a lot gentler on the target, thanks to his liberal use of gender-switched clones to feel both sides of the experience while experimenting, but he wasn't about to admit to the old man that he was inventing new 'H' techniques. Bad enough his girl-clones had such a tendency to sneak off and play with each other, but at least they were careful not to get caught. If word ever got back to Sakura or Tsunade they'd probably murder him for real.

Mind you, he wasn't scared enough to actually stop. He had a half-dozen girl-clones hidden discretely away at that very moment, trying to figure out how to turn Jiraiya's Seductive Massage technique into something that was actually fun. That was half the reason he wanted self-sustaining clones – so they could sneak off for long periods of time to look for information or practice secret techniques without anyone knowing.

He shook his head, and pulled his attention back to training. "Anyway. Call it ten days with the old pervert gone. With a hundred clones at a time that's three years of training. Plenty of time to get a couple of new techniques working, and get all this new wind stuff polished up right."

"Those Akatsuki guys will never know what hit them."

--oOoOo--

_**Somewhere in the deserts of Wind Country, two years on the road**_

Jiraiya was off on another 'research' mission, leaving his apprentice to his own devices for the evening. Most nights of late this would have been Naruto's cue to go girl and call up a few clones for his own private 'research', but not tonight. There was only one clone keeping the young jinchuuriki company at the moment, and although she was in 'sexy' form they were both fully clothed.

"Two years since we left Konoha." The real Naruto commented.

The desert winds howled through the rocks around them, carrying blasts of sand and grit. But the bubble of calmer air surrounding the pair blunted the force of the wind and reflected most of the debris, leaving only a pleasant breeze to ruffle their hair.

"We'll be ready soon." She replied. "We're already tougher than most jounin, even without the fox."

"I know. But we can't screw this up. Once we come back those Akatsuki guys will be able to find us, and they're monsters. If we're going to protect our precious people we need to be even stronger."

The girl-clone leaned back against his chest. "Who are our precious people, brother? Not the villagers, that's for sure. Sasuke? Not unless we're going to join the snake freak to be with him. Sakura? I love her as much as you do, but we both know now that she'll never return the feeling. The way she acts, I don't think she even likes us."

"Hey, now, don't be like that." His arms went around the troubled girl in a gentle hug. "We've still got plenty of precious people left, and you know I'm not ready to give up on Team Seven. What's got you so down?"

"I don't know. Maybe that plan to keep me like this until I start thinking like a girl is working. It's been nearly a month now since you made me, and I have been feeling kind of weird lately. I just…I'm so lonely. Brother," she looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Promise me we won't be alone forever. That when we get back you'll find us a girl. I still think Hinata might really like us. Or if not her, or Sakura, there's got to be someone else. Promise me you'll keep looking until you find her?"

He sighed. "I'll try, sexy-chan. I'll try. But you know I can't just make a girl like us, no matter what pervo-sensei says."

"Maybe not, but I bet a lot of girls would put up with us for those S-rank massages of ours." She sniffed. "Look, I know it won't be easy, but we can't just give up. I…I can't go on like this forever."

"We won't have to. You're right, there's got to be a girl for us somewhere. I promise, I won't stop looking until I find her. Believe it!" The last was said with a cheesy grin and an exaggerated "nice-guy" pose.

The clone giggled. "Thanks. Sorry about getting so moody."

"No problem. Now, I was trying to figure out what else we need to learn before we can go home."

"Oh, yeah. Well, how about some kind of wide-area jutsu like Temari's wind blast…"


	2. The Hero Returns

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Tsunade hated mornings. Especially the morning after a night spent drinking and gambling, though she seldom had the opportunity for that since becoming Hokage. But staring at the endless piles of paperwork covering her desk she reflected that a hangover and an empty purse might well be an improvement.

"At least I'd be having fun." She grumbled.

"Did you say something, sensei?" Sakura asked. The teenage kunoichi had been fluttering about the office since dawn, filing and organizing with disgusting good cheer.

"Never mind. What are you so happy about, anyway?"

"What do you mean? It's spring, it's a beautiful day, and we haven't had a crisis in over a week. Why wouldn't I be happy?"

Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, alright," Sakura relented. "I'm also glad that Naruto's finally coming home."

_I can't wait to show him how much stronger I've gotten_, she gloated to herself. _The first time we spar I'm going to kick his ass just for old time's sake, and then he'll never mistake me for that weak little girl I used to be._

"I thought so. Well, your boy-toy won't be here for a few days yet, so try to contain yourself."

Sakura sputtered, ignoring a knock at the door. "Hey! It's not like that, sensei! Naruto and I are just old teammates. You know Sasuke's the one I want."

The door swung open, and a voice observed, "Then I guess I'd better hurry up and drag his sorry ass back here for you, huh?"

Sakura gasped, and spun to face the door. "Naruto?!"

"In the flesh," the orange-glad ninja grinned. "At least, I think I'm the real one." He stepped into the room, and the girl had just enough time to notice how tall he'd grown before he swept her off her feet and spun her around in an exuberant hug.

"God, it's good to see you Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed. His chakra surrounded her in an invisible blanket of power, automatically caressing her smaller aura in a technique he called Affectionate Embrace.

Naruto knew intellectually that having a higher chakra level than your target could make intimate techniques a lot more effective, but as he'd only practiced on his own clones he failed to anticipate what this meant in practice. As he set her down Sakura sighed happily and melted into his embrace, her usual embarrassment over public displays of affection completely forgotten. "Oh, Naruto!" She murmured. "Welcome back."

_Wow_, he thought. _Sakura's even hotter that before!_ Firm young breasts pressed into his chest as she squirmed slightly against him. Then she looked to meet his eyes, and for a split second he thought she was going to kiss him.

Tsunade cleared her throat. "Should I give you two some time alone?"

Sakura blushed beet-red, and practically teleported across the room. "Um, no, no, of course not." _My god,_ the young kunoichi thought. _When did Naruto get so hot? Forget Sasuke, I've got to get me some of that! I wonder if he's still got that thing for me?_

Sakura firmly squelched that line of thought as she searched for a distraction to hide her embarrassment.

"Tsunade!" Naruto obliged by leaning over the desk to hug the older woman. This time he carefully suppressed his aura, thanks to years of Jiraiya's stories about how the Slug Sage despised perverted jutsu. Not that Naruto saw anything especially perverted about the technique, but better safe than sorry.

"Welcome back, kiddo." She smiled at him, her bad mood forgotten. "You must have made good time. I wasn't expecting you for a couple of days yet."

"Oh, I just flew in this morning." He tried to be blasé, but couldn't completely keep the pride out of his voice. "Jiraiya's too paranoid to ride on my fans, so he's coming the slow way. I left a couple of clones with him to make sure he actually shows up."

"Hmph. Well, I can see that his reports on your training weren't completely exaggerated, at least. I'd planned on setting up an evaluation match for you, but I'm afraid your opponent just got back from a rough mission."

"Yeah, I know. You've had to work the jounin pretty hard lately, between all the intrigue in the kingdom and that border trouble with Stone." He noted her expression, and chuckled. "Hey, Jiraiya's been teaching me infiltration for years, remember? I figured the best place to start practicing would be at home."

"But, that's impossible." Sakura interjected. "You haven't been here in person, and I know you couldn't have used Shadow Clones. They only last a few hours at most, and they can't go more than a mile or two from their maker."

Naruto nodded. "Sure, sure, you're absolutely right, Sakura. I must be confused or something. We all know what a dummy I am, right?" He assumed a befuddled expression, and scratched his head. "Oh, yeah. I, uh, I guess it musta been a dream. Hey, I'm hungry. You got any ramen?" He looked the pinkette over hopefully, as if she might have a bowl or two in her shuriken pouch.

Sakura giggled, and swatted him. "Oh, you! Quite that!"

Annoyed as she was at the implication that he'd infiltrated Konoha, Tsunade was suddenly reminded of how much more effective Jiraiya's information network had become in the last year. If Naruto could really maintain clones in another city…and had the wind mastery to pull off A-rank flight techniques…and she could see for herself that his chakra reserves were monstrously huge, more like a bijuu than anything human…and he'd obviously grown up quite a bit as well…

"Alright, Naruto, I've decided. Since I don't have anyone available to test you right now, I'll just have to do it myself." The fact that it got her out of doing paperwork for a few hours was beside the point. Honest.

--oOoOo--

As expected, training Ground Sixteen was empty when they arrived. Sakura and Shizune edged away as they reached the clearing, not wanting to be too close to the impending battle.

"Alright, Naruto, we're going to do your typical bell test here." She held up a single bell, and tied it around her neck. It promptly vanished into her massive cleavage, leaving only the thin string it hung from visible. "Now, I don't want you to hold back. If you don't come at me with everything you've got I'm going to get pissed off, and believe me when I say you don't want that."

Naruto raised a hand. "Um, does that have to include 'H' techniques? Because Jiraiya always said you'd murder anyone who tried one on you, and considering what his stuff feels like I don't blame you. But I don't want you to think I'm holding back just because you never see me use one."

Tsunade started to reply, then frowned dangerously and crossed her arms. "Naruto, how exactly do you know what it feels like to be the target of those techniques?"

"Did you ever read the old man's file on what my Sexy Technique really does?"

She shook her head.

He sighed, and looked away. "Short version: it's a real transformation, not an illusion, physical and mental. And pervo-sensei insisted I had to learn that stuff, but I wasn't about to practice something like Orchid Bows to the Storm on some strange civilian girl." He blushed, and kicked a clod of dirt. "Anyway, I know you're probably immune but I've got such a stupidly high chakra level it might make sense to try something anyway, but that would be really creepy since you're kinda the closest thing I've got to a mom."

Naruto half-expected the volatile Sannin to blow up at him for bringing up such a perverted topic, but instead she actually looked sympathetic. "Don't sweat it, kiddo. Just stick with actual combat techniques. Although…do you know the counters for those damned pressure point techniques?"

He nodded.

"Interesting. Ok, we'll save that for later." She stepped back, checked the bell, and resumed her stance. "Ok, let's get this show on the road. Ready? Go!"

"Heh. Ok, granny. Prepare to loose!" He stepped back and made a single seal. "Ninja Clone Squad!"

Instead of identical clones, the technique produced what looked for all the world like a typical chuunin team – a leader in his early twenties, plus a pair of teenage boys and a girl the same age. The kunoichi's scanty attire suggested an infiltration or genjutsu specialist, while the rest bore a varied assortment of swords, knives and combat wire.

"Cute." Tsunade chuckled.

"You ain't seen nothing yet. Ninja Team Replication!" The four clones became forty, in groups of four spaced widely about the clearing. An instant later the closest two groups leaped to attack while the more distant ones faded into the trees, and the fight was on.

Tsunade immediately discovered that these clones were more than just diversions. They fought with perfect coordination and jounin-level taijutsu skills, dodging her attacks with preternatural speed that had to be some kind of wind jutsu. One member of each team used Rasengan, which wasn't too unexpected, but another used blades sheathed in wind chakra while the girls threw kunai on chakra strings.

_Correction, _she noted as she narrowly avoided a cluster of flying blades, _the girls use airborne kunai as puppets. A blade for every finger, that's pretty damned good for someone who wasn't trained in Suna._

Time to get some breathing room.

Tsunade leapt over a pair of attacking clones, twisted out of the way of a chakra-sheathed sword blade and cut a half-dozen chakra strings with a wave of one hand as she drew a kunai with the other. Then she ducked low and slammed a super-powered fist into the ground, shattering the earth in a forty-foot radius and thrusting hundreds of jagged stones into the air.

Not a single clone was dispelled. The boys leaped into the air before the shockwave could reach them, the girls wove gracefully through the newly formed obstacle course, and the 'adults' simply smashed anything that threatened them with Rasengans.

_Ok, then, I guess the kid learned how to dodge. I'll have to step it up a bit._

As the kunoichi closed back into striking range she unleashed a barrage of senbon needles disguised by a genjutsu of an even bigger barrage. Six clones puffed out of existence as the needles struck, although she noted with surprise that the other two she'd targeted actually dodged. An instant later her highly trained nose picked out the barely-detectable scent of knockout gas.

_Shit!_ She thought. _How? The clones? How do you make a clone out of knockout gas?! _She Body Flickered to a nearby tree to escape the barely-visible cloud.

There was an exploding tag stuck to the trunk next to her landing spot.

She Flickered away again as it detonated, arriving at a more distant tree. Another clone team was waiting there.

_To hell with this_, she though, and smashed the tree with a supercharged fist. It exploded into a mass of flying debris that dispelled three of the clones, and gave her a few seconds of cover to take an antidote. Naruto probably wouldn't try poison twice against a medic-nin of her level, but it never hurt to make sure. She landed lightly, noting with approval that the kunoichi clone had actually managed to dodge everything and was standing on another tree making seals.

"Typhoon Dragon!"

The explosion of wind blasted the slug Sannin through two trees and back into the clearing, where she rolled to her feet just in time to spot a clone descending on her with a Rasengan the size of a beach ball in his hand. She did a substitution, but even from twenty yards away the blast from that impact blew her back off her feet and pelted her with a hail of shrapnel that would have shredded most ninja.

That was the pattern for the next fifteen minutes. Fast as the clones were Tsunade was even faster, and she picked them off steadily. But the supply of opponents was endless, and they took advantage of their numbers to prepare traps and ambushes while keeping her too hard-pressed to do the same. She was spending chakra like water just keeping up this pace, and Naruto showed no sign of tiring. _He's got to be burning chakra ten times as fast as I am, _she thought, _but damned if he isn't outlasting me anyway._

Then she punched a clone, and it exploded.

The blast popped the rest of her current attackers. Two of them blew up as well, producing a fireball that filled half the clearing. As the smoke cleared Tsunade staggered back to her feet, punch-drunk and frantically extinguishing her smoldering clothes, to discover a single grinning Naruto approaching her.

"That's one kill, granny. I could have made the blast ten times that size. Give up yet?"

"Like hell I will!" she growled. _But crap, a blast that big would have blown my arm off. As it is my right hand's nearly useless until I get a chance to heal it._

Then the remaining wisps of smoke coalesced into a female shape, which wrapped an arm around Naruto's shoulders and handed him the bell.

"What the hell?" Frantically looking down, Tsunade confirmed that she'd lost the bell somewhere along the way.

"Thanks, Sira-chan!" Naruto exclaimed as he took it. "Good thing you used string instead of ninja wire, granny."

"Ok, kiddo, I guess you won that round." Tsunade grumbled, but secretly she was pleased. _Damn, but the kid's gotten good. But if he's fighting at this level just reforming Team Seven won't work. Hell, he's probably tougher than Kakashi now, and almost as tricky._

"What the hell is that, anyway?" She went on. "Another new clone variant, or some kid of summon?"

"Oh, Sirasa's a northern gale. She likes to hang out with humans sometimes, so we've got a deal that she'll let me summon her if I make soulless clones for her to posses."

"A storm spirit? Well, I suppose you are at that level now, but be careful. High-level spirits can be a real bitch to deal with if you piss them off."

Sirasa smirked. "Silly ninja girl, Naruto can summon me any time. I haven't had this much fun since Toltir went wandering. Besides, even a princess of air knows not to pick fights with a kami." With that the strange girl dispersed back into smoke and disappeared.

Tsunade chuckled. "Well, someone has a high opinion of you. Good job, kiddo. After a performance like that I'll have to take a long look at the team assignments to figure out where to put you. Why don't you take the rest of the day off, and come by my office in the morning."

"Sure thing, Tsunade. I can't wait to see everyone again." Shizune and Sakura cautiously approached the scene, and he turned to greet them. "Hey, Sakura, I won! Want to have lunch with me to celebrate?"

"Sure, Naruto. But you're buying!"

_Hey, does that make this a date?_ Naruto thought to himself. _Nah, this is Sakura. She's just mooching off me because she knows I'll let her. Ah well, it's worth it._ "No problem, Sakura-chan."

--oOoOo--

They'd run into Shikamaru and Temari on the way, and the pair – who stridently denied being a couple – had somehow invited themselves along. Naruto didn't mind, since it gave him a chance to catch up with old acquaintances.

"Congratulations on making jounin, Temari. Man, I can't believe I'm the only one from our year who's still a genin."

"Sure, like I really believe that." The Sand kunoichi reply dryly. "You survive two fights with S-rank missing nin, serve a three-year apprenticeship under a Sannin, and the minute you get back the Hokage has to evaluate your skills personally, but you're just some random genin. You guys don't really think anyone is buying this, do you?"

"Hey, it's true!" Sakura insisted. "He was only here for one chuunin exam, and the council didn't approve him for promotion."

"So? Can't Sannin do field promotions? Or the Hokage, for that matter?"

"Actually, no." Shikamaru answered. "It's a troublesome situation. The Third Hokage let the council take on a strong advisory role on promotions twenty years ago, and they've become entrenched. There are only a few ways around them."

"Bring a major new bloodline into the village, be a clan heir and have your elder sponsor you, or be in ANBU during a war and get promoted by the Hokage." Naruto recited. "Not gonna happen, and those old fossils will never vote for me. But don't worry, I've got an angle…"

Temari would have pressed for details, but the group was interrupted by an ambush from a side street. "Aha! I found you, boss! Now, prepare to feel the power of my ultimate jutsu. Sexy Technique!"

Naruto turned just in time to get an eye full as the Konohamaru transformed into a curvaceous brunette clothed only in a few strategically-placed wisps of smoke. The younger genin held the technique for a few seconds before returning to his normal self. "Get a load of that! Packed some real oomph, didn't it?"

The short genin's teammates cringed in embarrassment. Temari seemed vaguely amused, and Shikamaru was carefully looking elsewhere, but Sakura growled and clenched her fist. Naruto chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"No need for that, now. You know Konohamaru, I'm not a kid anymore. I don't rely on techniques like that, and you shouldn't either."

_Oh!_ Sakura thought. _He really has matured._

"This is much more effective!" With a casual hand-seal Naruto was replaced by his female alter-ego. But unlike the transformation he'd used as a kid, this time there was no noise or smoke to draw attention to the jutsu. He just blurred momentarily, and changed.

Girl-Naruto wasn't naked, but her outfit of orange spandex shorts, black sports bra, orange half-jacked, black fingerless gloves, and low black boots left little to the imagination. Sakura noted that even as a girl Naruto was slightly taller than her, with the ultra-toned body of a serious kunoichi melee specialist. But those curves! Those incredible breasts! And her hair – real girls would kill for hair like that! It fell clear to her thighs in a rippling cascade of gold that would be impossible to manage in combat, except that the way it floated made it obvious the pervert was using some kind of hair animation technique.

_Naruto's prettier than I am. No, he's prettier than Ino! Damn it, I'd give anything to get my hands on…I mean, to have a body like that!_

Her distraction lasted long enough for Naruto to call up an identical clone, and carry on his explanation. "See, you can actually do a mission like this without giving yourself away, and most guys will think you're some wimpy seduction type and underestimate you. Then if you still get in trouble you just call up a clone and hit'em with the old Hot Twins Fanservice technique – if they're still trying to kill you after that they're gay!"

"Oooh."

Unfortunately Naruto mistook Konohamaru's wide-eyed expression for admiration, so she didn't realize her danger until Sakura's fist impacted her head.

"Pervert!"

There was a moment of rubbery resistance, and the golden-haired girl dissolved in a puff of smoke. The pinkette checked herself and looked wildly around.

"Gee, guess that wasn't the real me after all." The clone snickered.

"You… but… when… what.. argh!" Sakura sputtered. "Why did you switch yourself with a clone, Naruto!"

The jinchuuriki shrugged. "I always do that in hazardous situations. Keeps me from getting killed in a surprise attack. So, are we good or do you need to hit me again?"

"I…" Sakura stared at her former teammate's relaxed expression while a whirlwind of conflicting responses ran through her head. _He thinks walking down the street with me is a dangerous mission? Is he saying he can't trust me? Well, I did try to hit him. But he deserved it, he was being a pervert! Although, I guess I did hit him pretty hard. And he…she's actually not dressed any worse than some of the jounin. But she makes me feel so weird! So I attack him? God, this is so confusing!_

Finally she hung her head. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I overreacted. I just… that technique really bothers me for some reason."

"Does it? Ok then, I'll try not to use it when you're around." The female clone shifted, becoming the male Naruto again, and slipped an arm around her shoulders. "So, lunch?"

Sakura shivered and leaned into the embrace as the tension flowed out of her body. "Y-yeah. Lunch."

"Ok, then. See you later, Konohamaru. Gotta go." Naruto waved at the younger genin and nodded to Shikamaru, who was regarding him with an unusually focused expression. Then he headed on down the street with his former teammate in tow.

Shikamaru hesitated for a long moment before following. _Did he just confirm that he beat Tsunade's bell test without even being present? Yes, I think he did. But whatever that was, it was no shadow clone. So the class clown is now an S-rank ninja, and he's actually keeping quiet about it instead of bragging all over town. But why did he want to make sure I'd noticed?_

"Troublesome."

Temari laughed and dragged her not-actually-a-boyfriend off to rejoin their friends.

--oOoOo--

"You can't be serious, Tsunade!" Shizune stared at her mentor in shock.

The blonde Sannin leaned back in her chair and raised an eyebrow at her assistant. "Can't I? Why not?"

"Tsunade, he's only fifteen! Look, I can see your point about not re-forming Team Seven. If he's as strong as you say it would throw off the team dynamics completely, and I'm not sure Kakashi could handle him. But that doesn't mean we have to get crazy about this! We could have him try some infiltration missions with those clones of his, or do a stint in ANBU. We could even pair him up with a hunter-nin, if you really want to put him to the test. But Anko!"

Tsunade chuckled. "Yeah, she's a handful. Three team leaders hospitalized, five transferred to other teams, even one mental retirement. At this point no one else in the village will take her, so she's stuck with solo missions and assisting Ibiki. But can you imagine what a resource she'd be if we could get her back into a stable team?"

Shizune gave her a dubious look. "You know what she'll do to him, Tsunade. She can't help it. She'll end up seduce him after their first battle together, and it will only go downhill from there. Do you really want his first time to be with a dominatrix assassin who can't tell the difference between pleasure and pain?"

"Ah, but what if she fails?"

"Excuse me?" Shizune blinked. "This is Anko we're talking about. Even most jounin can't resist her techniques."

"But Naruto knows the counters."

"What?!"

"You heard me. Orochimaru lost interest in that stuff years ago, but Jiraiya's as obsessed as ever. He's taught our Naruto at least most of what he knows, including the counters for those seduction techniques Anko loves so much. Between that and his chakra level she'll never make any headway."

"Oh. Well, I suppose that might work, especially considering how oblivious he is. But still…" She broke off, and gave her sensei a measuring look. "Why are you so set on this?"

"The kid needs a chance to prove himself, Shizune. No one in this town has ever taken him seriously, you know. Maybe he deserved some of that as a kid, but now he's come back from training all grown up and looking to show us what he can do. He wants to prove he's good for more than just mindless 'blow stuff up'-type missions, and I want to give him a shot at it."

"As for Anko…can you imagine what it would be like to carry one of those seals for fourteen years? Spending most of that time on solo missions, doing the dirtiest jobs the village has because no one dares trust you? Having to fight to hold onto your sanity every single day, and knowing that no matter what you do you're going to loose in the end?"

She sighed. "I remember her when she was still a genin, Shizune. Before her sensei betrayed her, and her hero died, and Jiraiya and I ran away. She came back here knowing full well how she was going to be received, and she's been paying her dues every day since then. If there's anything this village can do to help her, we owe it to her to try."

--oOoOo--

Late that evening a slight figure crept stealthily over the rooftops towards Naruto's apartment. She moved with the easy assurance of one who knows the area like the back of her hand, easily avoiding notice from the inhabitants of nearby buildings and the occasional traveler on the streets below. Even the chuunin on neighborhood watch duty failed to notice her passing, and she settled into her old spot across from her target with a quiet smile of satisfaction.

"Byakugan!"

She didn't really need the seal to active her bloodline these days, but the ritual brought back nostalgic memories of the times she'd done this as a genin. Hinata smiled as she looked though the dingy concrete walls to find Naruto fast asleep in his bed.

"Naruto." She sighed. _Welcome back, my love. Oh, look at you! You've grown so tall, and those muscles! Somehow, I've got to find a way to tell you how I feel._

She noticed the kunoichi on watch down the block turn in her direction, and frowned in annoyance. There were a million excuses she could use to explain away her presence here, but there was always a chance her father would hear about it…

Then the girl Body Flickered to the roof where Hinata hid, and she was struck by an odd sense of déjà vu. That hair, that face, that incredible figure – there was something familiar about this girl.

"Hinata-chan! It's good to see you again!" Hinata squeaked as the curvaceous blonde swept her into a tight embrace, and she suddenly realized why the 'girl' seemed familiar.

"N-Naruto? Is that you?"

"Yep. Oh, right, I'm still a girl. Here." She reverted to he, soft curves replaced in an instant with hard muscle. "Man, I've missed you. How have you been?"

"I…" Naruto's muscular arms held her close, and she was acutely conscious of the way her generous breasts were pressed against his firm chest. "You…" His chakra enveloped her, impossibly strong, offering affection, tenderness, protection… and passion? "Please…" Hinata's head swam and her face flushed, just like in the old days. But the sudden surge of desire awakened something else, something that turned her own chakra against itself in a way that couldn't possibly be natural. "No! Help me!" She gasped.

And fainted.

"Huh. She did it again." Naruto scratched his head, and considered the unconscious girl. _That can't have been too much chakra, I was barely using any at all. Should I take her home? No, she asked for help. For all I know her family could be the problem._

So he took her back to his apartment, and sent the clone there out to take over sentry duty while he made her as comfortable as possible on his dusty old couch. A field-grade medical scan showed no physical problems, just the aftereffects of some kind of shock to her chakra system. There were all sorts of things that could have that kind of effect, and most of them would wear off on their own in a few minutes.

Running through that catalogue of possibilities didn't do much to set the Naruto's mind at ease. When Hinata finally began to stir he was careful to stay well away from her, just in case.

"Oh." Hinata sat up slowly. "I fainted again, didn't I."

"Yeah." Naruto replied. "I'm starting to get worried about you, Hinata. It seems like every time I get near you I end up making you pass out."

She looked away. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, I just want to know what's happening to my friend. Are you ok?"

"Y-yes." She responded automatically, then stopped to consider. "Maybe. I think…there are things the Hyuuga don't normally discuss with anyone outside the clan."

"Yeah, I figured it was something like that." She glanced up at him sharply, and he shrugged. "Hey, I'm Jiraiya's apprentice, and I'm not as clueless as I used to be. I'm not going to pry into your clan secrets if you don't want me too. But Hinata, if there's anything I can do to help you, and I mean anything at all, all you have to do is ask."

That got him a hint of a smile. "Thank you. But I'm not even sure if I'm right."

"How can we find out?"

He was so serious, and yet so open, that she couldn't help but take his offer seriously. "K-kiss me."

She expected stammering, shock, at least hesitation. A chance to let him back out gracefully, and go find a more decorous way to test her theory. Instead, he simply replied "All right."

And gently cupped her head between his calloused hands.

And kissed her.

It was glorious. Better than she'd ever dared dream. Infinite strength surrounded her with loving protection as a riptide of searing pleasure shot through her, instantly filling her with trembling desire…

…and something within her erupted in reaction to that desire, twisting it into a burning pain that tore a scream from her throat before she collapsed again into unconsciousness.

This time when she awoke Naruto was pacing and punching the air while muttering to himself. Noticing her movement, he turned to face her.

"Hinata, I saw it this time. It's the Seven Virtues Chastity Seal."

Her expression turned to ice. "I know. I saw it as well."

"But for it to react like that just from hugging me, you'd have to…"

He trailed off, unable to actually say it. Normally she might have smiled at discovering the limits of his newfound maturity, but at that moment the rage that filled her left no room for anything else.

"Yes, Naruto. Ever since we were children."

Naruto stared at her in stunned bewilderment. "Wow. I'd thought maybe… well, but we never talked about it, and I didn't want…" He stopped, and shook his head. "Sorry, I'm babbling. We'll talk about that later. What can I do?"

She rose, making each small movement with exaggerated precision. "You studied under Jiraiya. Can you remove the seal?"

"Normally I'd say yes, but this thing is just stupidly oversensitive. I can't even get close to you without setting it off, so it'd be tricky. Not impossible, but it would probably take a few weeks to come up with something. Damn it, what were they thinking? That think makes you an easy target for any seduction specialist you meet, or even a genjutsu type if they figure out it's there. Just the slightest exposure to the wrong kind of technique and it'd knock you out instantly."

"Yes." She replied. "I know. Please excuse me, Naruto. I'm going to kill my father now."

"Would you like help?"

The calm sincerity of his offer reached her, even in her icy rage. _Would he actually murder a clan head for me? Even though he barely knows me, and he'd probably be executed himself for the crime?_

_No. Not for my sake._

"No, thank you. This is a problem I must deal with myself. Good evening, Naruto."

Unable to risk touching him, she made do with a formal bow.

And left.

--oOoOo--

Naturally, Naruto sent a clone to tail her in case she needed backup. But when an hour passed with no sign of a disturbance he decided Hinata must have stopped short of actual violence, and heaved a sigh of relief. The sentry clones around his apartment reported no further intrusions, so he finally settled in for a few minutes of meditation before bed.

At least, that's what an observer would have seen.

In a small country inn two day's ninja march from Konoha a clone nodded to himself as the memories of his counterpart's arrival in Konoha arrived. He replied with his own update and went to bed, already considering how to ask Jiraiya for advice on releasing a booby-trapped virginity seal without giving away Hinata's identity.

In a hidden valley among the hills of northern Fire Country another pair of clones grinned at each other across the campfire. Jutsu research was incredibly dangerous, but there were plenty of spots in the valley their experiments hadn't blown up yet.

In the Hidden Mist ninja academy, an orphan boy who looked nothing like Naruto held up the sword he'd been sharpening. The 'child prodigy' briefly contemplated the fact that a steel blade has no tenketsu to seal, and resolved to ask his instructors about techniques for fighting against jyuuken users in the morning.

In the dormitory across the quad a young girl who was in line to graduate at the tender age of nine rose from her bed and pulled out her poison handbook. Suddenly the possibility of needing a discrete assassination technique seemed a lot more urgent than when she'd began this infiltration.

Far to the north, the mysterious young man who served as the most trusted bodyguard of Snow Country's Queen resolved to send a clone out house-hunting in the morning. His quarters in the palace had always been enough for him, but a friend who might need to hide from her family would need something roomy and discrete. Maybe a place up in the mountains, where real estate was cheap and there weren't many neighbors.

A dozen other clones spread all across the elemental countries merely acknowledged the memories, and replied with their own daily updates. Some were training, others working to amass a little wealth or infiltrate a promising target. None had any obvious contribution to make in solving this particular problem, so they simply noted it and went on with their various projects.

The exception was a young man with tanned skin and sun-bleached hair who sat on a deserted beach, watching the moon rise over a tiny Sea Country island that no other human had visited in months. Finally he nodded to himself, and rose.

"Alright, it looks like Konoha is going to need reinforcements no matter what happens. The guy I've got for missions, another one to watch the town, and probably a third for Hinata. They'd better be tougher than those persistent shadow clones, too. One good hit can still take those guys out, and I'm not betting anyone's life that I'll always be able to dodge. Ah well, I guess I won't be doing any training for a few days."

Drawing a small knife he carefully slit his left arm from elbow to wrist, taking care to miss the tendons while hitting as many veins as possible. Then he dropped the knife and began forming seals as he channeled chakra into what might well be the most energy-intensive ninjutsu technique ever created.

"Demonic Blood Transformation Technique: Permanent Living Clone!"

* * *

**Omake:**

Temari chuckled and dragged her not-actually-a-boyfriend off to rejoin their friends, leaving the younger genin behind. Konohamaru watched them leave with a stunned expression.

Finally Moegi shook him. "Hey, Konohamaru, snap out of it. What's wrong with you?"

"Don't you get it, Moegi? The boss just showed us a technique ninja have dreamed of for centuries. Something most people think is impossible. Even the super-pervert Jiraiya could never pull it off."

The young kunoichi frowned at him. "What are you talking about? All he did was turn into a girl and…wait…" Her eyes suddenly widened.

"That's right." Konohamaru said reverently. "He just _countered_ the Righteous Female Fury technique."

Udon gaped at them. "My god, you're right. He…he even…Konohamrau, she even apologized!"


	3. A Dangerous Detour

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

**Author's Note: **Visit my blog, Shaper's Ramblings for rants, Q&A and other random posts related to my stories.

**Edited 08-02-09:** Minor spelling & grammer corrections. Added author's note. No plot-relevant changes.

* * *

Naruto was precisely on time for his meeting with the Hokage, a detail that both she and her assistant missed completely. He breezed into her office with a smile and a wave, ignoring her usual early-morning funk.

"So, what have you got for me granny?" He ducked the pencil she threw at him, cheerfully ignoring the way it embedded itself six inches deep in the concrete wall behind him. "Something fun I hope. Form a clone army to invade Sound? Teach the ANBU how to secure a records office? Maybe dig up some old ROOTs and toss them out of Konoha's garden?"

Tsunade had to chuckle at that one. "If only it were that easy, kid. I've been at this for nearly three years now, and I'm still trying to figure out which ninja are actually loyal to that bunch."

"Well, if it comes down to it you know Jiraiya and I will both back you." The young ninja said seriously. "Throw in Asuma, Gai and Shizune and that gives us more than half Konoha's combat power without even considering anyone else. But I guess they wouldn't realize that until after we kicked their asses, so it'd end up getting bloody."

"That is one of the problems with hiding your strength," the blonde Sannin agreed. "But I didn't ask you here to talk about that. After yesterday's performance I've decided to give you a shot at something a little more complicated than your average combat mission." She slid a personnel file across her desk.

Naruto casually pulled up a chair and opened the folder. "Anko, huh? Yeah, I remember her. Jiraiya-sensei's still kind of pissed about not being able to get that cursed seal off her." He turned the page, and whistled. "Ouch. Looks like she's had some bad luck in team leaders. Oh, right, her seal was one of the experimental ones that didn't come out right. Something about mixing up bloodlust and, um, the other kind."

"Yeah, that's about the size of it. The poor girl turns into a homicidal nymphomaniac when she's under stress, and after the training she's been through she's damned near irresistible. She could be an incredible asset if we could just keep her problems under control, but since Konoha doesn't train seduction specialists there hasn't been much hope of that. Until now."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "Whoa. Yeah, I can see how there'd be some problems there. So that's why she's been stuck with village work and solo missions for so long." He considered the file for a moment. "I think I see where you're going with this, but what about the fact that I'm still technically a genin?"

Tsunade laughed. "Oh, did I forget to mention that? Here, it turns out you volunteered to join ANBU this morning." She slid another form across the desk.

Naruto bent over it with a puzzled frown. "Did I? Huh, my memory must be going." He signed the form and passed it back. "Ok, but what good does that do?"

"Nothing, by itself. But did you know we never signed a peace treaty with Sound? So, by my authority as Hokage, I hereby promote ANBU member Uzumaki Naruto to the rank of jounin…"

"What?!" He exclaimed.

"…and place him in charge of Team Naruto, currently consisting of himself and Special Jounin Mitarashi Anko. Do a good job, and you can have your pick of the chuunin for the other two slots."

Naruto gaped at her for a moment longer before regaining his composure. "Tsunade…thank you! You won't regret this."

"See that I don't. But next time we spar I'd better be looking at the real you, and not some fancy clone."

"Um…"

"Are you even in Konoha?"

"Ah, no?" Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly. "But I'm not going to pop like a shadow clone either. I can bleed and heal and recover chakra just like a real person."

"Good. It's not fair if I'm the only one who has bruises the next day." She paused, and her expression turned serious again. "Can you handle this?" _He said he knew the counters for her techniques, but she's got a lot more experience than he does. I hope he doesn't overestimate his resistance._

"Seriously?" He considered it. _I've never even done it as a guy, and the concept of Anko in some kind of crazed sex-and-bloodshed frenzy is kind of intimidating. But she needs help or she's going to end up going completely nuts, and I've certainly got plenty of experience from my girl-clones to fall back on._

"Yeah, I think so," he finally decided. "Even if I'm wrong, well, I'm never alone." _No matter how bad off she is a few hundred clones has got to be overkill._

"Good point," Tsunade agreed. _He can always have clones watching her for tricks, and a couple of those clone squads could probably restrain her easily enough. Yeah, he should be able to hold her off no matter how crazy she gets._

"Well then, time for introductions. Shizune!" She called.

The door opened just enough for Shizune to poke her head through. "Ready?"

Tsunade nodded, and her assistant threw the door open to allow a bemused-looking Anko to enter. The buxom assassin took in the room, and particularly Naruto's expression, and frowned.

"Joint mission?" She asked as Shizune closed the door.

"Not exactly. Anko, say hello to Naruto. Jiraiya's apprentice, Konoha's newest jounin, and your new team leader."

Anko looked the orange-clad blonde up and down thoughtfully. "The kinky toad pervert's apprentice, huh? Sounds interesting." She perched herself on the arm of his chair with a cheerful grin. "Just don't blame me if he comes back begging for a reassignment, boss."

"Yes, well, try not to be any more difficult than you have to be." The older woman replied sourly. "But in the interests of getting that issue settled as soon as possible I've got a mission assignment for you."

She retrieved another folder from the piles on her desk and passed it over. "There's been a bit of bandit trouble up near the northern border, and we've received a request to take care of it. Normally we'd send a genin team, but I've got a Nara analyst telling me he thinks it's a trap. Something about the timing of the attacks being a little too neat for real bandits. Anyway, I want you two to run a little impersonation scam and see what you can turn up."

"Sounds like fun." Anko commented. "We can't have those Stone fuckers killing off our cute little genin before they grow up, after all. Or maybe it'll be Lighting, they're always fun to dance with."

"Or maybe Orochimaru is collecting experimental subjects again, which gives us a shot at finding leads on him." Naruto added. "We'll get right on it, granny."

This time he caught the thrown pen a few millimeters from his nose, and calmly signed the mission acceptance form.

"I'll leave a few clones around town just to confuse any lurking spies. If we run into anything interesting I'll relay word back so they can let you know. Maybe I should leave you a couple of spares as bodyguards while I'm at it? You do seem to be slowing down, granny."

Tsunade growled. "Watch it, kid. I can still order a full physical for you any time I want."

Naruto shot out of the chair with a panicked expression. "Well, look at the time! We'd better get on that mission, Hokage-sama. Wouldn't want to waste any more of your valuable time, after all."

Anko snickered as she followed him out the door.

Neither member of the newly-formed team spoke again until they were safely out of the building. Anko tipped her head slightly in the direction of ANBU headquarters, but Naruto shook his slightly and indicated the Hokage monument instead. Five minutes later they were on the deserted trail behind the great stone heads.

"Kind of open, don't you think?" Anko commented as she looked around warily.

"I'm an S-rank wind user." Naruto replied. "No one's going to get close enough to listen in here unless they're phased into the rock or something, and I've had the place staked out since yesterday."

"Fair enough." She conceded. "I can't believe the boss wants to try this again. I appreciate the thought, but…well, I assume you know what happened to my last few team leaders?"

"Yeah. I was pretty surprised too. I mean, usually she freaks out at the slightest hint of anything perverted…."

"…and now she's basically putting you in charge of screwing me senseless anytime I need it." Anko went on with a cheerful leer. "You really think you can handle me, stud? I'm not gonna go all gooey and doe-eyed just cause lay a Kiss of Surrender on me or something."

"Please. I wouldn't use that crap on an enemy, let alone my teammate. But before we get all caught up in planning the post-mission party, why don't we put some thought into the actual mission?"

"Spoilsport." She stuck out her tongue at him, and he laughed. "Ok, ok, we can do the mission first. How are we going to impersonate a bunch of kiddies anyway?"

"Heh. Check this out. Persistent Genin Team!"

A pair of thirteen-year-old boys and a girl the same age appeared in a puff of smoke, and looked around with interest. They wore Konoha forehead protectors and reasonably practical clothes, but all three were festooned with equipment pouches, canteens, bags and backpacks. Pretty typical for a genin team on their first long-distance mission.

"So we finally get to use this trick, huh?" The taller of the two boys looked up at Anko while absently tugging at his pigtail. "Guess you'd be our jounin sensei, then. Hi, I'm Ranma, the best taijutsu specialist around."

"Quit staring at her chest, you bastard." The other boy growled. "I'm Ryouga. I'm an earth specialist, and one of these days I'm going to kick Ranma's ass."

"Yeah, yeah, you and what army, bacon-breath."

"Don't forget about me!" The girl chimed in. "My name's Akane, and I'm a ninja too!"

"Yeah, her cooking is so deadly the Hokage declared it a forbidden technique." Ranma commented mockingly.

"Ranma! I heard that, you jerk!" The insulted girl tried to bash him over the head with a spiked club she'd pulled out of nowhere, but the boy nonchalantly sidestepped the attack. Unfortunately one of his canteens wasn't properly strapped down. The club smashed it apart in mid-air, and water went everywhere.

Ryoga vanished as the water struck him, leaving behind empty clothes and a pile of gear. But as his overloaded backpack crashed to the ground a small form struggled free of the falling clothes and leaped to the ground.

A…piglet?

The tiny pig squealed indignantly and launched itself at Ranma, who was now a redhead and starting to wring out his shirt. No, her shirt, Ranma was definitely a she now.

"Ow!" The self-proclaimed taijutsu master complained as the piglet bit her ankle. "Quit that, you little porker! It wasn't my fault!"

"Ranma, stop picking on P-chan!" Akane dropped her club to pick up the angry pig and cuddle it against her chest. "There, there P-chan, mommy won't let the mean old pervert hurt you."

Ranma rolled her eyes. "Great, here we go again."

Akane stopped and looked around in puzzlement. "Hey, where'd Ryoga go?"

Anko giggled. "You're holding him, kiddo."

The younger girl looked at the pig in confusion. "What? No, this is my pet pig P-chan. He's always wandering off and getting lost, but he finds his way home eventually. Don't you, Mr. P-chan? Yes, you do. You're a smart little piggy, aren't you?"

"Don't bother." Ranma groused. "She'll never get it. Hey, are either of you a fire type? I need to heat up some water to change us back."

Anko chortled. "Naruto, you're a genius. Anyone who meets these three is gonna be so busy trying to figure out what the hell's going on with them that they'll never think to wonder if they're real. Did you make them up, or are they real people?"

"Beats me. I got into tech summoning awhile back, and of course I pulled in all kinds of random crap from the summon realms before I got any control over what I was getting. I got this bunch from some books I summoned, but I'm not sure if there were fiction or not."

"But either way no one else is going to recognize them, which is perfect for random genin." Anko nodded approvingly. "But are they really gonna hold up long enough for this kind of mission? We're looking at a couple of days to get out to the border, and probably a few more of poking around before we find anything."

"Not a problem," Naruto answered proudly. "My persistent clones can last for weeks as long as I'm close enough to recharge their chakra, and my range on that's more than twenty miles. But the real trick is the transformations."

"Yeah, I did wonder how pig-boy does the empty shirt trick. An illusion wouldn't do that." The piglet squealed in protest, but the special jounin ignored him. "Let me guess. You figured out a way to make clones based on something besides yourself?"

"Better," he grinned. "They're just chakra constructs. If you overload a Transformation the right way you can reshape them into anything you want, and the change is just as real as the clone was. See that bird?" He pointed to a raptor circling among the thermals high over the city.

"No way!" Anko stared at the distant bird, and then at her new team leader. "That's a clone? Damn, that's a hell of a trick! I wish I could do that."

"I'll show you if you want, but I'm not sure how much good it will do you. A hawk clone ends up taking about three times as much chakra as a regular shadow clone, and that's an awful lot of power for a normal person."

"Yeah, too much to be worth it," she agreed regretfully. "But if that's your plan, can you make a clone for the kid's sensei too? No one who knows anything about Konoha would buy me being trusted with a team of rug-rats."

--oOoOo--

Some days Naruto could actually keep a secret from his sensei, but not today. One casual question about virginity seals, and the old man smelled blood. It took nearly an hour, but eventually he wormed the truth out of his student.

Surprisingly, the revelation failed to trigger the expected teasing. Instead Jiraiya's mood took an unusually serious turn.

"You've really got your work cut out for you if you want to go there," he said finally. "Hyuuga seal work is damned tight, and they've been perfecting that crap they use to control their own clan members for generations. There's a reason branch family members don't just defect and get their seals removed."

"Yeah, I figure those Caged Bird seals have more booby traps than one of Orochimaru's hideouts," Naruto grumbled in reply. "But the Seven Virtues doesn't explode when you activate it, so it would be a lot harder to make tamper-proof. The thing is, they've got the sensitivity set so high I can't even get close to it without setting it off."

"Exactly. That's how they do it," Jiraiya explained. "You'll burn out her abdominal tenketsu if you try to peel it off while it's active, which would leave her sterile and probably crippled even if she survived. The trick is to avoid activating the seal while it's being removed, but they've closed off all the obvious loopholes over the years. When I was your age you just had to get a woman to do the removal, but they figured that one out when Yohko turned out to be a lesbian. These days they tune it so any foreign chakra other than the girl's own father will set it off."

"But that's stupid." Naruto protested. "What if he dies before they get married?

Jiraiya shrugged. "What can I say, these guys are paranoid. They'd rather take a chance on that than have a possibility of someone outside their clan getting the Byakugan."

Naruto frowned, then suddenly stopped with a look of surprise on his face. "Wait, you mean they do that to the guys too? Damn, no wonder Neji was always such an ass. But how do they…um…"

"Rub one out?" The toad sage chuckled. "They can't. Even without foreign chakra around they'll get zapped if they get that worked up. Like I always say, that is one messed up family. Did you know they even invented a fidelity seal for when they get married?"

Naruto shook his head. "Unbelievable. Let me guess, that's one's designed so there isn't any way to remove it, like the Caged Bird seal. So if your spouse dies or something you're just out of luck."

"Yep, you guessed it."

--oOoOo--

The genin settled noisily into their campsite, bickering constantly over everything from the placement of their tents to the division of chores. Their sensei, a clone based on an ex-ANBU named Uryuu, made a half-hearted attempt to supervise. In less than ten minutes Ryoga was a pig again, a topless Ranma-chan was wringing out her soaking-wet shirt and muttering under her breath about uncute tomboys, and Akane was merrily cooking away at their small fire. When Uryuu noticed her adding camouflage paint and boot polish to the pot he gave up on trying to control the chaos, and slunk away to gnaw on a ration bar and mutter incoherently to himself.

Six miles away Anko was cheerfully camouflaging the entrance to a small hide Naruto had tunneled into a hillside, while he finished drawing an array of concealment seals on the walls of the burrow.

"Good call on the seals," she commented as she finally slipped inside. "It's always nice to be able to use camping jutsu without worrying if some passing asshole is going to sense them. But I thought your element was wind?"

"It is. My earth techniques are so weak and slow you'd think a genin was doing them."

"Oh, ho!" She chuckled. "Just the right level to play 'Ryouga', huh? But doesn't that mean you had to do that leaf training thing twice to get two elements down? Jiraiya must be more boring than I thought if you had time for that."

Naruto placed one of the smokeless logs he'd brought into the small fire pit at the mouth of the hollow, and lit it with a tightly-controlled fire jutsu. "Five times, actually. Jiraiya thought I was nuts, but the biggest advantage I've got is the fact that I can do insane amounts of training. Running thirty or forty clones at a time adds up when you do it for months on end."

"Of course, it didn't work out like I'd hoped. I thought since my chakra is so huge I might be able to get around the usual limit on using elements you don't have an affinity for, but no such luck. I can do low-level techniques from all five elements, as long as I don't mind burning a ton of chakra. But I can't produce enough elemental chakra to do high-level techniques with anything but air."

Anko finished positioning a pair of ration packs over the fire and nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. Still sounds pretty useful though. That gives you all the basic utility stuff, and a bunch of deception potential for your clones. Although," she paused and cocked her head thoughtfully while she did the math. "You're actually older than I am, aren't you?"

He shrugged. "Depends on how you count. I've done a few decades worth of training in the last two years, but absorbing memories from clones doesn't age you the same way living the same length of time would. There's a difference between experiencing a month of time going by, and having thirty yesterdays."

"Thirty yesterdays, huh?" Anko sighed and settled herself on the ground next to the young/old blond. "Too bad we've got to stay on alert here. I'm getting curious what else you learned in all that training time."

He chuckled, and slipped an arm around her waist. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough, Anko-chan."

Then he relaxed his chakra concealment technique, allowing his massively overdeveloped aura to expand into the space defined by the seals. Anko's sarcastic comeback was promptly forgotten as she found herself submerged in an ocean of foreign chakra. It was a thousand times more powerful than anything she could have generated, and she felt a brief moment of panic before realizing that her companion was the source. That, and unlike the killing intent projections she was used to it wasn't hostile at all.

No, it was…protective? No one had tried to protect her since she was eight.

"Naruto, what are you doing?"

"Just relaxing. Suppressing your presence all day is murder when you've got this much chakra, but I have to keep building it up anyway because it's my one big advantage over guys like Itachi. Oh, wait, did you mean the empathy thing?"

"If that's what's pushing those feelings at me." Not just protectiveness. Amusement, curiosity, affection, a bit of desire…was this what friendship felt like? "That doesn't feel like a seduction technique. What's it for?"

"It's an empathic projection. I was trying to figure out a way to set up actual telepathy between my clones, but so far all I've managed to do is make it so I leak emotions when my aura isn't suppressed. It's kind of an embarrassing problem for a ninja, but right now it takes some concentration to keep it from happening."

"So it's…real? Not some kind of trick?" Anko bit her lip. Real or not, it felt so damn good to feel safe for once.

"Anko, we're teammates now. I might joke with you, but I'd never trick you about something serious."

It was impossible to miss his feelings about that. You take care of your teammates. Protect them, trust them, sacrifice for them. Bleed and die for them if necessary. Most people cared less about their own children than Naruto did his teammates. And he was offering that to her? The girl who'd betrayed her village, then her sensei, and couldn't be trusted with anything for fear of what traps might still be lurking in her damaged mind?

"Do you want me to stop?" He asked gently.

"No!" She replied fiercely. Then, a little calmer. "No. I kinda like it."

--oOoOo--

Anyone from Konoha would have panicked at the sight of the nine-tailed fox lounging beside the moonlit lagoon. It was only the size of a large dog, and despite the number of tails it barely held more chakra than the average jounin. But the malevolent aura it radiated was unmistakably the Kyuubi's, as was the alien red chakra that swirled about it.

Naruto was unconcerned. Oh, the fox could be tricky, but that was his shadow clone it was possessing. He could still dispel it with a thought, and it hardly had enough power to be dangerous anyway. Their discuss was of more concern.

"Two weeks, but you have to stay on the island," he offered. "If you go causing havoc word'll get back to Konoha, and then the old men on the council will panic and try to have me killed."

"I suppose," the fox grumbled. "But sniffing the breeze isn't so great if I can't kill anything fun. What I really want is some progress on that dismissal technique."

Naruto snorted. "Yeah, I wish. Where am I supposed to get six tails worth of native chakra and a holy kami willing to risk its life to send you home? I've never even heard of anyone meeting a kami."

"You won't," Sirasa commented from her spot on the lake. Swimming was still a novel experience for her, and one she insisted on repeated as often as possible. She'd put up with having the fox around if it mean she could swim. "They all left. Some of their children are still around, but I've never seen one whose chakra was actually holy."

"So call one back," the Kyuubi insisted. "Sacrifice a few villages or something. There's got to be some way to get one here."

"What, so you can eat them too? They're not stupid, Mr. Grumpy-Pants."

The Kyuubi growled at the air spirit, but she simply giggled and dove underwater. After a moment he huffed and turned back to Naruto. "One of these days I'm going to kill that little airhead."

"Uh huh. So, are you going to show me this soul transference technique or not?" Privately Naruto had to concede that, whatever his other moral shortcomings, at least the Kyuubi was honest about what he was. Sure, he was a psychotic monster by human standards, but at least he just wanted to kill you. He wouldn't spend weeks torturing you first, or try to gain your trust just so he could betray it, and he thought the ninja custom of using little kids as weapons and living sacrifices was disgusting. By ninja standard that made him a real stand-up guy.

Not that Naruto was dumb enough to trust the fox's word on how these demonic techniques worked. He was pretty careful to pick them apart and rework them using his own skills before relying on them too much. But honestly, who else was going to know anything about building techniques that take a whole tail of chakra to pull off?

"Sure, what the hell. Make it two weeks on the next island over, and don't bitch about me killing off the wildlife. But you realize this isn't some touchy-feely sugar-plum angel resurrection thing? Demonic Soul Transference rips the victim's soul out of its rightful body kicking and screaming, and the harder they fight it the more it damages their mind in the process. Sure, you can stuff them into another body if you've got one handy, but that doesn't make it theirs. Usually they don't integrate with it right, and you just get a raving zombie."

Naruto frowned. "You can't repair the connections between the soul and the chakra circulatory system?"

"All those little fiddly bits?" The fox guffawed. "Please. I'd die of boredom first. What the hell do you want a technique like that for, anyway? I can't see you ever using it."

Sirasa surfaced again, and Naruto turned to watch his friend chasing a fish through the warm waters. Finally he said, "Demonic Blood Transformation doesn't actually have to be done on your own blood, does it?"

The demon fox froze, and turned to stare at him. "You are one scary little monkey, you know that? Yeah, that would solve the compatibility problem alright. Where do you come up with this stuff?"

"In the next year or two I have to kill ten of the toughest ninja in the world, or everyone I care about is going to die." Naruto smiled grimly. "Just call me highly motivated."

--oOoOo--

"So, how are we going to find these bandits anyway?" Ryouga asked. The ersatz genin team was walking along a trail in the target area, moving at a normal civilian pace to facilitate conversation.

"Maybe you could get lost and stumble on their camp?" Ranma suggested.

Akane rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Ranma, can't you stop picking on Ryouga for five minutes? Obviously we'll have to check the local villages to see where they've been operating. Then we can either disguise ourselves as merchants, or just sweep the roads until we find one of their scouts. Right, sensei?"

"I don't think that will be necessary, Akane." The older ninja replied as his eyes swept the trees. "I believe they've found us."

There was a nasty chuckle from the trees, before a figure bearing a gigantic sword stepped out into view. His oddly shark-like face would have intimidated most genin, but the black robe decorated with red clouds was more of a concern for those in the know. Uryuu paled.

"I gotta admit, I was starting to think this scam wasn't going to catch us anything in time. Tell you what, little man, you tell me everything you know about the Kyuubi container, and I might let the kiddies live."

"Hoshigaki Kisame," Uryuu said evenly. "S-rank nuke-nin, originally from Hidden Mist, currently a member of the criminal organization Akatsuki. We'll have to take this one seriously, everyone."

Ranma looked the missing nin up and down with a confident smirk. "This freak? He don't look so tough."

"Fine, you charge in and get yourself killed." Ryouga muttered. "I'm going to be ready for this guy. Earth Golem Armor!" The ground around the heavyset boy rushed up to engulf him, and continued on until a fifteen-foot giant of earth stood in his place.

"I'm not a kid!" Akane growled, as her aura spiked into the visible range and a vortex of wind sprung up around her. "Don't dismiss me or you'll regret it!"

"You kiddies think you're going to fight me? Oh, this is rich! You'll never even touch me. Water Release: Instant Lake!"

Water erupted from the earth all around them in a thundering mass that inundated the whole area. Ryouga's earth form was quickly submerged, and Ranma yelped as he found himself female and struggling to stay afloat. Uryuu stood atop the rising waters and faded back a bit, watching for an opening. All pretty much what Kisame had expected.

Akane was different. Her eyes narrowed and she launched herself forward in a crash of thunder, splitting the rising waters and crossing the twenty yards between them in the blink of an eye. He was so startled he barely got his sword up in time. A delicate fist sheathed in more wind chakra than any genin could possibly produce impacted the massive blade, and blew the missing nin back through forty yards of trees to fetch up against the side of a nearby hill.

"I told you not to dismiss me." She girl smirked, and formed a pair of clones before following.

"What the hell is with that girl?" He shook his head to clear it, and found himself looking at a pair of boots. His eyes scanned up to find long legs, a curvaceous figure barely covered by tight mesh armor and an unbuttoned trench coat, and a manic grin beneath a mop of dark purple hair.

"I get my very own S-rank nuke-nin to kill?" She clasped her hands together and squealed like a giddy schoolgirl. "Naruto, you shouldn't have!"

'Akane' landed on a tree branch behind her, and blurred into a considerably older and more curvaceous kunoichi. "Knock yourself out, Anko-chan. But I think I'll hang around to back you up if you don't mind?"

Kisame heaved himself back to his feet and chuckled. "Cute. This might actually be fun."

Back on the trail, Uryuu was startled by a sudden comment from behind him.

"Interesting. So this was a trap."

He spun, and found himself looking into a pair of Sharingan eyes. "Itachi!"

"Indeed," the legendary ninja confirmed. "But you were caught quite easily for a jounin. Are your skills that poor, or did you think you could actually defeat my Tsukuyomi?"

The world fell away, and Uryuu found himself hanging from a wooden cross in a dead winter forest, with a crimson moon overhead. But unlike most victims of the dreaded technique he merely smiled. "You could say that."

Itachi leaned closer to examine him. "Really? You have no Sharingan, and no lesser genjutsu can match my power. So what…ah, of course. You're a clone."

"So you can see the chakra connections at close range? Good to know. But what I'm really wondering is, how many times can you use these funky eye techniques before you run out of chakra? Bye now."

The clone dispelled himself, and the technique collapsed. Itachi scanned the water-logged forest for enemies, but he needn't have bothered. Four Naruto clones arrived in swirls of leaves an instant later, and began circling to surround him.

"You know, Itachi, you're brother's going to be pissed if I kill you before he gets the chance. Sure you don't want to call off this bijuu-collecting nonsense before your boss blows up the world or something?"

"No." The four Narutos became sixteen, and Itachi frowned. "You're all clones," he commented.

"Yeah, but that won't stop us from kicking your ass. You're pretty tough, but I'm the worst kind of opponent there is for a guy like you. So, are you going to make an excuse and run away, or are we going to do this?"

_Catching the real one will be difficult,_ Itachi thought. _I need to see what else he can do._ "You cannot defeat me, Naruto. But you are welcome to try."


	4. Bonding and Bloodshed

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

Tsunade grumbled to herself as she paged through the quarterly manpower reports. Konoha was finally recovering from the losses suffered in the brief Sound/Sand invasion three years before, but it was still a struggle to find resources for anything beyond normal operations. Most of the reforms she'd once hoped to put in place were still hopelessly out of reach, and she was beginning to wonder if that would ever change. There just weren't enough qualified field medics to put one on every chuunin team, let alone the genin. Her more grandiose plans for field hospitals and an expanded medic-nin training program were even further out of reach. Skilled ninja with good chakra control were just too rare, and most of them were always tied up with the missions that kept the village solvent.

Her brooding was interrupted when a pigeon flew in the open window to land in the visitor's chair in front of her desk, and transformed into her favorite blond.

"Hey, granny!" Naruto said cheerfully. "I just wanted to let you know you were right about that mission being a trap, but it's even bigger than we thought. Anko-chan and I are fighting Itachi and Kisame up near Blackrock Pass right now."

Tsunade blinked in surprise as she tried to process the unexpected interruption. "Itachi? Damn! It'd take a day to get anyone up there…"

"Don't worry about it, granny, I can handle Itachi." Naruto tried to reassure her. "Besides, that's just a blood clone anyway. Even if he beats me I just loose a little chakra, and I'll have plenty of shadow clones around to help Anko get away if she needs to run."

"Right. A clone. Ok, let me know how it turns out." Then she thought about what she was saying. "Wait a minute. Naruto, are you telling me you're getting messages from a clone more that two hundred miles away from here in real time?"

"You bet. I had to leave a few clones along the way to act as relays, but as long as they don't get dispelled it only takes a few seconds to pass a message." He grinned at the astounded Sannin. "Think we could find a few uses for that?"

"Yeah, maybe a few," she said wryly. "How many of those permanent clones can you make, anyway?"

"Well, I've got two ways to do it. A persistent clone can last a couple of weeks if it doesn't burn too much chakra, and it can take a few cuts and bruises without dispelling, but other than that it works just like a normal shadow clone. My blood clones are pretty much real people, but I lose about five percent of my chakra permanently when I make one. I can train it back up, but that's still enough to matter. I've got a couple of them headed here now as backup, but they won't be in Konoha until tomorrow."

"I see. I assume it takes some ridiculous amount of chakra to make that technique work?"

He scratched his head and nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. About a thousand times as much as a regular shadow clone."

"Hmm. Not much point in adding it to the Forbidden Scroll, then." She glanced down at the reports on her desk, then back at her visitor. There were some interesting possibilities there. But that could wait. "Ok, I'll want to talk more about that in a bit. But first, tell me about this fight with Itachi."

-oOoOo-

Anko dodged a stroke from Kisame's sword that would have cut her in half if it had connected, and danced back across the new-made lake with a laugh. He tried to catch her with a water prison, but she escaped into the half-submerged trees with a replacement technique and replied with a fire jutsu that turned half an acre of woods into an instant inferno.

Kisame's water clone was blown away by the blast, while the real missing nin watched the scene from below. _She's good,_ he thought as he gazed up through the murky water. _Fast, vicious, good technique selection, sexy as hell and uses that as a weapon too. Too bad she's got that prison-penetrating replacement technique, or I'd take her alive and have some fun with her later. I bet she's the type who loves being conquered. But what worries me is the way the other one's just standing there watching_.

The blonde kunoichi that 'Akane' had transformed into chose that moment to pitch a wind blast at him that blew through the twenty feet of intervening water like it wasn't even there. For the second time in this fight he barely brought Samehada around in time to block, and the attack tore the wrappings right off his strange sword. _Crap, _he thought_, that was as big as one of Kakuzu's attacks. I can't afford to get hit by one of those things, and I've got no idea what other tricks these two have up their sleeves. Time to kick it up a notch_.

As the hole the blonde's technique had blasted through his lake crashed closed he cut his thumb against one of Samehada's scales and slapped his hand against the ground. "Summoning Technique: Deep Blue Sea!"

A geyser of pressurized water forty feet across shot hundreds of feet into the air, dousing the forest fire and flooding the whole valley even deeper. Kisame had selected the ambush site with his favorite tactic in mind, and the shallow bowl could be flooded to a depth of over a hundred feet in a matter of minutes. That would give him plenty of cover and water for his techniques, while the steep slopes surrounding the valley would prevent his opponents from getting out of sight of the water. The only significant area that would be out of his view was the broad southern pass where Itachi had stationed himself.

In Kisame's opinion anyone who voluntarily tangled with the Sharingan user just to avoid his lake deserved what they got.

A hundred yards away Itachi was becoming mildly irritated. He'd first tried to dispel Naruto's clones with thrown shuriken, but the swirling winds that surrounded them batted the projectiles away easily. He was faintly amused when two of the clones immediately collected the lost weapons and ran away with them, but the fact that four others were rushing to attack occupied most of his attention. They drew short blades as they approached, sheathing them in wind chakra intense enough to be visible even to normal vision. He eyed the tenuous threads of chakra that connected the clones as they approached, hoping to catch a glimpse of the line that must extend back to their maker.

Then they reached him, and he suddenly realized how different his opponent was from the clumsy genin he'd encountered two years before. The careless brawler had become a blazing-fast taijutsu master, with jounin-level skill and a deadly repertoire of close-combat jutsu. Worse, his clones now fought with competent tactics and nearly-perfect teamwork. Itachi was still the better fighter, of course, but his margin of superiority was uncomfortably thin. One clone at a time he could have handled easily, but four at once?

He sidestepped one blow and whirled away from another, but a third drew a thin line of blood down his left arm. He planted a kunai in one clone's belly, but it popped into a log a second later and a hail of shuriken rained down on him from above. The other three pressed their attack and he took another shallow cut, this one going right through his robe and the armor underneath. Then he caught a glimpse of female clones moving to surround the melee, each surrounded by a cloud of wind-charged kunai snaking through the air on chakra strings, and he knew he couldn't let this remain a taijutsu fight.

He did a replacement to get some distance, and sure enough the clones followed. But the split-second delay gave him time for a jutsu.

"Great Fireball Technique."

The perfectly timed blast of flame took out six of the clones who'd been pursuing him. Unfortunately, two of them exploded. The resulting fireball blew down trees in a twenty-yard radius, and Itachi lost the rest of his Akatsuki robe to the flames. If he hadn't recognized the telltale energy buildup a split second in advance he'd have been dead instead of just singed.

_ He knows the Clone Great Explosion technique. With his chakra he can overload them, and fill the entire forest if he wants to. I need to end this quickly._

Then a wall of water came smashing through the trees from the direction of Kisame's fight, sending flying debris everywhere, and for a few moments both combatants were occupied with not drowning.

Half a mile away the 'real' Naruto concentrated on directing the fight. He still hadn't perfected actual telepathy, but with his Memory Clone technique each of his clones could instantly send a package of recent memories to any other clone it still had a chakra connection with. Every few seconds he received another burst of memories from the leader of one clone team or another, or from the hawk clones currently circling the area at high altitude. It was disorienting to say the least, but he'd spent a fair amount of time training against himself this way.

There were forty clones involved in the fight with Itachi, either attacking him directly or setting up ambushes all around him. It was the same tactic he'd used against Tsunade, and he noted with satisfaction that it seemed to be working. Itachi was burning chakra fast and soaking up minor hits anyway. In a few minutes the damage would start slowing him down, and then one of the clones should be able to get a lethal hit in.

_Which means he's about to pull some cool trick I've never heard of out of his ass,_ Naruto thought to himself. _No way is a guy like Itachi actually going to go down this easy. But unless he's got some way to keep me from replacing my clones he's going to lose this fight in the long run. I only have to get lucky once, but the only way he can win is if he kills all my clones at the same time._

The clones fighting Kisame were having a tougher time of it, since he'd made the lake too deep for even A-rank wind techniques to penetrate. The nuke-nin's water techniques went through it just fine, of course, and the water clones he kept sending up to hunt his attackers were surprisingly effective. Naruto's wind clones picked them off steadily, but they were inflicting enough casualties in return that Anko had backed off from the confused melee to avoid becoming one of them.

_ Not something I ever would have expected from her, but I'm actually kind of relieved. I was afraid she'd go psycho and just charge the guy. But if he's willing to hide under his lake until I finish Itachi I'm happy to let him – I could actually run low on chakra if I tried to fight both of these guys at once._

He sent off an update, and the clone currently leading one of the Itachi ambush teams grinned as the missing nin's latest body flicker ended less than ten yards away from his team's position. The four clones all threw shuriken as they leaped to attack, forcing their target to spend precious instants dodging while they closed. But instead of defending himself Itachi turned dead black for an instant before dissolving into a flock of ravens.

"Kai!"

The overpowered dispel the team leader performed would have blown away any normal genjutsu within a hundred yards, but apparently Itachi's techniques weren't vulnerable to such brute-force counters. An instant later the whole team was dispelled by the shuriken the illusionary birds had concealed, and for the first time since the fight began there were no clones near Itachi. It took several seconds for the next-closest team of wind clones to rectify that problem.

The clones weren't bothering to avoid their opponent's gaze, since Naruto figured he could make far more clones than Itachi could snare with his Sharingan. So the first clone in the next assault wasn't surprised to find himself sucked into the hallucinatory world of the Tsukuyomi. Instead of dispelling himself he just looked around curiously, intending to hold out as long as possible in hopes of increasing the technique's chakra cost.

"You are an irritating pest, Naruto." Itachi commented as he appeared before the paralyzed teen. "But men kill pests, not vice versa. Now, let's see where the real you is hiding."

Then he looked into Naruto's eyes, and pushed his power into the clone's chakra system. Into, and through. Reaching down the tenuous chakra connection that all clones shared, he caught the clone's maker in his illusion. But it was only another clone. He pushed harder, forcing his genjutsu down all the chakra links that radiated out from his victims. The rest of the clone team fell into his grasp, then the four members of a second team, then a third. Soon the landscape was dotted with dozens of orange-clad blonds, each tied or nailed or otherwise secured to his own individual wooden cross. But where was the master?

He gritted his teeth and pushed harder. There, a tenuous link to a much more distant clone. It was linked to three more, all widely scattered. No other links. Another tenuous link led to…a bird? Was that a summon or a new type of clone?

Later.

He focused on the stronger links, and pulled in another dozen clones. One of them had a thin connection to another distant clone, which connected to one even further away. Then another cluster, each linked to an even more distant clone…

_Wait, this shouldn't be possible,_ he suddenly realized. _Every clone should link to its maker, and possibly to the others that were created at the same time. But I've seen all four members of a clone team spawn reinforcements at the same time, and I know I've dispelled several of the older clones. So how can all the clones still be part of one neatly organized network, especially one that looks suspiciously like a military org chart? Where are the holes from lost parent clones?_

_ This must mean his clones can drop and re-create their chakra links at will. Did he develop that to manage the psychic backlash from loosing large groups at once, or do the links serve some other purpose for him? Either way, it means my real opponent may not even be connected to this network._

"Hey, Itachi, I've got a question," one of the trapped clones commented thoughtfully. "This trick about catching clones in your eye-thing without even looking at them is pretty cool, but does the three-days-of-torture-in-a-second thing still work if your targets are spread all over the place? Cause I'm pretty sure Jiraiya told me once that fast-time illusions are still limited by light-speed delays."

"In theory," he answered absently as he considered the dilemma. "But that will hardly save you. The range of Shadow Clone is only a few miles, and you'd need a far greater distance to affect my technique."

"Cool. That's what I thought."

Something about Naruto's tone pulled the Sharingan user out of his introspection long enough to actually look at the clones he'd caught. Most of them were just like the ones he'd been fighting, but there were also a pair of birds, a Naruto in civilian clothes and a half-dozen others that didn't look anything like their maker. Three were disguised as civilians, but one wore the uniform of a Sand nin while two others wore Mist forehead protectors.

The last three grinned and waved.

The faintest hint of concern showed on the impassive ninja's face as he suddenly realized that his technique gave him no sense at all of the absolute distance covered by those chakra links he'd been following, but only of how strong they were. If Naruto had some way to extend the range of his clones…

Itachi cancelled his technique just as a hawk clone clutching a Rasengan the size of a basketball slammed into his back. Another one struck an instant later, followed by a half-dozen focused wind blasts that reduced the spot where he'd been standing to a smoking crater thirty feet deep. Blood and body parts flew high into the air.

"Yes! I knew splitting into more than one link group was a good idea."

A few clones cautiously approached the grisly remains as the others kept their eyes on the area, just in case. The leader of the second clone network bent to pick up the head, but stopped as streamers of chakra began drifting off of it. In a few seconds the face changed, becoming that of a stranger with perfectly normal eyes.

"What the hell?" The clone stared at the unfamiliar face. "Wait, a possession technique? Then he was never really here at all, and that probably wasn't even his full power. Of course, it wasn't mine either, but…oh, crap! Now he's seen all those new techniques of mine, and I hardly saw him do anything I didn't already know about. Damn it! I beat the bastard and he still came out ahead!"

A thunderous crash drew his attention to the lake that currently filled the lower reaches of the valley. A snake summon nearly the size of a bijuu was collapsing into the water, while Anko leapt from its back to attack a Kisame clone who was standing on the lake's surface. Or possibly the real Kisame, considering the way he blew her out of the air with a water dragon before she could reach him. The water clones were fast, but not fast enough to do that to Anko.

"Oh, shit!" He exclaimed. "I was so busy with Itachi I forgot to keep sending reinforcements to help Anko. I don't have any clones left down there!"

Fortunately the blood clone who'd been managing both battles came to the same realization a moment later. _Crap, I've got to get Anko some real help down there fast. She may be tough, but that guy's a monster. But he's probably not the real thing either, so…yeah, time to show these guys a little of the old me._

Covering long distances with consecutive body flickers is perfectly possible, it just takes too much chakra to be feasible for most ninja. Naruto hardly noticed. Twenty seconds later he was at the edge of the lake, ready to charge in and save the day if need be.

A report from one of the hawk clones revealed why Kisame had abandoned the safety of the lake depths. Apparently there were now thousands of tiny snakes swimming about in the water, and knowing Anko they were bound to be lethally poisonous as well as aquatic. Kisame was actually standing on the back of a giant shark made of water, so apparently he wasn't immune to poison.

But the shark-like ninja was a little too busy to worry about water snakes at the moment, since Anko had somehow managed to close with him. The crazy minx was dodging and weaving around his blows with inhuman flexibility, the snakes wrapped around both her arms constantly trying to bite him as she threw kicks and punches with limbs that seemed to change length at will.

"Ok, that's going a little too far with the creepy snake thing," Naruto muttered to himself. "Damn it, I can't get a clear shot with them that close together. We haven't had a chance to practice fighting together either, so charging in isn't going to help much. Ok, get clone teams all around the edge of the lake and get ready to plaster him when I get a clear shot. What else can I- Anko!"

Kisame finally managed to connect, with a hit that cut one of Anko's snakes in half and sent her flying across the lake in a spray of blood. Somehow Naruto was there to catch her before she hit the water.

"Ouch," she complained weakly. "That didn't quite work like it was supposed to." One side of her mesh armor was completely shredded, and two ribs were clearly visible in the mess of mangled flesh underneath.

"You kept him busy long enough, Anko-chan. You just take it easy now, and let me deal with this asshole." He summoned a clone team to carry the injured woman to safety.

"Aww, did your little girlfriend get hurt? Do you need a break so you can kiss it and make it all better?" Kisame taunted.

Anko growled. "Rip his lungs out for me, will you?"

"Sure thing. Keep your snakes around for a couple more minutes if you can, ok?"

She nodded, and the clones made a break for the edge of the lake with her. Naruto turned to face Kisame with a scowl.

"You guys are really starting to piss me off, you know that? You do realize I'm about to beat you with just one word."

Kisame guffawed. "Yeah, right kid. What word is that? Please?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nope. Its…fire!"

Kisame was standing in the middle of a lake nearly a mile in diameter, so when the seventy clones who'd taken up positions along the shore all unloaded wind attacks at him it was a good half-mile to the nearest solid cover. The best he could do was drop below the surface of the water, which didn't help at all when the hawks circling overhead added their Spiral Wind Cannon attacks to the salvo. Each blast was a supersonic vortex of cutting wind chakra eight feet in diameter that penetrated clear to the bottom of the lake in an instant.

Even Kisame couldn't dodge that many high-speed attacks at once. The first hit knocked Samehada from his grip. The second removed his right leg at the knee. The third hit him squarely in the face, and after that it was all overkill.

Naruto watched the churning surface of the lake until it stilled, and the waters began to drain away. Then he nodded in satisfaction.

"I win the first round. Now I just need to figure out where these guys are hiding so I can take them out for real."

-oOoOo-

He left a ring of clones out to secure the area, of course. With opponents as slippery as Akatsuki you could never be sure if they were really dead, and he wasn't about to take chances. But his partner was in no condition to be moved.

Two shadow clones were working to stabilize her when he reached their hiding spot, but both were running low on chakra. Naruto bent over the wound to get a first-hand look and frowned in concern.

"It isn't healing right," one of the clones complained. "That freaky sword screwed up her chakra somehow, and regular healing techniques aren't working. We slowed down the bleeding, but at this rate I'm not sure we can get her back to Konoha in time."

"Sorry, boss," Anko gasped out. "Thought I had him."

"Hey, you've got nothing to apologize for. You kept a kage-level enemy busy long enough for me to beat Itachi. But it turns out they were using some kind of possession technique, so those weren't their real bodies. We've got to get out of here before any of their buddies show up."

"Damn. I was hoping we'd killed the bastards for real." Anko coughed weakly, and Naruto was alarmed to see blood on her lips. "Can't fix myself. Chakra's all wonky. Not enough left, anyway."

A diagnostic jutsu of his own confirmed the situation. "Crap. You've got a punctured lung and a lot of internal bleeding. I've got some basic techniques, but I'm not enough of a medic to handle this even without the chakra damage. At least, not the normal way. I've got a special technique that should be able to heal you up, but I'm not sure I've got all the kinks worked out of it yet. If nothing else I'm sure it's got to hurt like hell."

"Not feeling real picky here," Anko said. "Do it, before I get too weak."

He studied her for a moment before nodding. "Alright. I owe you this one anyway, for screwing up and leaving you alone with that guy." He formed a pair of female clones, who settled into place on either side of the injured woman.

"You two give her a chakra transfusion if this works," he directed. "She'll need it to fuel the regeneration. I've barely got enough juice left for this, so I probably won't be good for much afterwards. Once she's stable you'll have to get us moved somewhere safer."

The girls nodded, and he rolled up his sleeve.

He gathered his remaining chakra and made a long series of seals, before pausing to cut the palm of his hand with a kunai. Then he held it over the wound, letting his blood mingle with hers as he formed another series of seals one-handed. "Demonic Blood Transformation Technique: Bloodline Gift!"

Anko gasped, then screamed as tendrils of foreign blood burrowed through her veins, burning away everything they touched and rebuilding it along a subtly different pattern. The clones grabbed her limbs as the convulsions started, but it took all four of them to hold her down as the technique ran its course. A faint odor of cooked meat rose from her wound, and her skin took on a sunburned look.

The scream died to a strangled whisper as the wounded kunoichi ran out of air, her wildly spasming muscles making it impossible to breath. Her heart fluttered erratically, and stopped beating altogether.

The clones holding her arms down exchanged a panicked look.

Then it started again, and Anko managed to draw a ragged gasp of air as the convulsions eased.

"Damn. That was close," one of them complained.

Anko choked back a sob, and concentrated on breathing. Naruto bent over to inspect the wound, which had begun bleeding again from her struggles. After a moment the bleeding stopped, and the smaller gashes left by Samehada's scales began to close.

"It worked," he muttered. "Whew, that took even more chakra than I expected. I'm just gonna…lie down…"

One of the male clones caught him as he started to topple, and laid him down next to their patient. The girls were already beginning their transfusion technique, and to Anko's relief the pain quickly ebbed. Soon after she was unconscious as well.

-oOoOo-

The next morning Naruto awoke to find himself stretched out in a bedroll with a naked female form snuggled up against his side, and a confused jumble of memories floating about in the back of his mind. The sound of forest birds greeting the sun confirmed that he was in northern Fire Country, but beyond that his sleep-addled mind wasn't sure where he was. Or, to look at it another way, which of several hundred versions of the previous day's memories actually went with his current body.

But he could feel that he had sentry clones out, so he wasn't too worried about it. Waking up was always confusing when he didn't have the chance to properly sort his memories before going to bed. He gave the curvaceous girl-clone in his arms a friendly squeeze, and idly let his hand wander down to her hip as he tried to sort out who he was.

She made an appreciative sound, but then her hand wandered south to investigate a case of morning wood that definitely shouldn't have been there.

_ Wait a minute. I'm a guy. Why am I sleeping with a girl-clone if I'm in guy form? I haven't done that since that one clone stayed a girl too long and started wanting to experiment._

"Hmm, not bad. Is this natural, or another of your funky transformation techniques?" The voice in his ear was sultry, teasing, and definitely not one of his clones.

His eyes snapped open. "Anko? What are you doing?"

"What's it feel like I'm doing?" She purred as her hand began to stroke. "I'm still too weak for anything acrobatic, but that's not going to stop me from thanking you for saving my ass yesterday."

"Um, much as I appreciate it, you really don't have to do that."

She nipped his ear playfully. "Are you kidding? There's nothing hotter than fucking your boss. Now you just relax and enjoy it, stud."

Then she slid down his body to put her tongue to work.

Naruto groaned at the novel sensation. Sure, he'd done plenty of experimenting as a girl during his long training trip. But the fact that his clones were still him, and therefore had decidedly mixed feelings about the idea of getting intimate with a guy, meant that this was one area where his experience was still rather lacking.

After a moment Anko came up for air, and gave him a sultry look. "You never answered my question, boss. Natural or enhanced?"

"That's all natural, Anko-chan. But I can always do a Partial Multi-Size Transformation if you need another foot or two to play with."

She laughed. "Sounds like fun, but you'd better wait until I can pull off elastic body techniques again. Right now I just want to show you what I can handle the old-fashioned way."

She bent her head again, and this time she went all the way down.

"Oh, god," he groaned. "You're good at that."

"Mmmm Hmmm!" She replied happily, and he groaned again.

"I love sucking cock!" She announced as she came up for air. "Damn, it's been too long since I got to do this with someone I actually like. I hope you've got a big load saved up for me, because Anko-slut really needs her morning protein." She ran her tongue slowly up the length of his shaft, and then playfully lengthened it to three times its normal size and wrapped it around him.

"Keep that up and you're gonna get a face-full in no time," Naruto replied. "Good gods, do you know how hot that is?"

"Uh huh!" The snake mistress replied proudly as her enlarged tongue slithered up and down his organ. She eyed the object of her desire hungrily as she tasted it from every angle. But apparently that wasn't enough for the buxom vixen, as she abruptly retracted her tongue and wrapped her lips around it again.

She looked up to lock her eyes with Naruto's, and then slowly lowered her lips until his entire length was engulfed in her hungry mouth. Her incredible tongue went back to work, hidden now but no less effective, as she slowly worked her way back up. When she was on the verge of releasing him again she stopped, her tongue running teasing circles around the tip of his member

He thrust upwards with a groan, trying to get more contact, but she timed her movements perfectly to maintain her teasing position. "Fuck!" He grabbed her head with both hands and pushed her roughly down.

"Mmmm Hmmm!" Anko exclaimed excitedly, and went to work. After a minute he relaxed enough to let her bob her head up and down on his shaft, but he kept one hand in her hair and pulled her back down whenever she tried to tease him again. She seemed to like it, if her mounting enthusiasm was any clue.

He was already getting close when she started to hum, and he lost it. She kept her lips firmly fastened around the base of his shaft as he emptied himself into her mouth, making appreciative noises as she greedily swallowed every spurt. Finally, when she was satisfied that he'd been milked completely dry, she released him with a happy sigh and set about licking him clean.

"Damn, Anko-chan!" Naruto said weakly. "That sex-kitten act of yours isn't an act at all, is it?"

"Nope," she replied as she squirmed her way back up his body to lie against him. "I'd spend my whole life fucking and killing if I could. I wish I was up to a good pounding right now, but those broken ribs haven't quite healed yet and my chakra's about dry."

"Yeah, the regeneration burns your chakra to heal you, so you won't have much until you're healthy again. Food helps a lot, so you might want to start carrying extra rations just in case. I'll give you another chakra transfusion after breakfast, and you'll probably be back to full strength tomorrow."

"That's a hell of a jutsu, boss. How long does it last, anyway?"

He didn't answer.

"Wait, I remember the name of that technique now. Was that… permanent?"

"Um, yeah. I'm afraid so. You've got my regeneration bloodline for real now unless you have some kind of rejection reaction, and those usually show up within a few hours. I guess we'd better get Tsunade to give you a checkup just in case, but you should be good. Sorry there wasn't time to really talk about it-"

"Sorry? Are you fucking kidding me? That's the most kickass bloodline I've ever heard of! Hurry up and heal me, so you can screw me till I can't walk."

Naruto laughed. "You'll probably pass out when I do it, so we'd better get some food in you first. But if you're that desperate it'd be pretty cruel of me to leave you waiting for so long. Just don't resist any of this, and we'll get you taken care of long enough to tide you over."

An invisible aura sprang up around them as his hand dipped between her thighs. Anko stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and hooked one leg over his hip to give him access. "That's…sort of like the old pervert's Lust Aura, but different. Not so grating."

"Yeah, well, I turn into a girl, so I know what that stuff feels like too. But it turns out being able to feel both sides of one of these techniques makes research a lot easier. I call this one Affectionate Embrace, because at low power it's nice and friendly and relaxing. But when I turn it up a little…"

Anko gasped as her eyes dilated, and the dampness between her thighs became a river. He slipped three fingers inside her and pressed them against her g-spot as he cupped her mound, the heel of his hand pressing firmly against her clit.

"And this one's my version of Grip of Ecstasy. No need to risk burning your poor clit with huge chakra pulses when I can reach everything important at the same time like this."

He moved his whole hand in a complicated rhythm as pulses of chakra danced between his buried fingers and the palm. Anko jerked and bit his shoulder as she climaxed suddenly. He used the distraction as the opening for another technique, and she released him with a sigh as she went limp. He carefully laid her out on her back, one hand on her chest while the other continued it's work below.

"Wha was 'at?" She slurred, barely able to talk.

"Muscle relaxation technique. I'm sure you'd rather be more active, but we can't have you tearing anything up in there. So you just relax and let Dr. Uzumaki take care of all that nasty tension."

Normally Anko's couplings were frantic, violent affairs born of a roiling mixture of bloodlust and desire, a state in which she was as likely to carve her partner's organs out as get him off. But this time was different. Naruto's effortless command of the situation, the intimacy of being wrapped in that impossible aura of his, the upwelling of purely sexual desire triggered by his technique, all awakened responses she'd never thought she was capable of. She sighed happily, and let the sea of pure, uncomplicated bliss wash her away.

Naruto was rather startled when, somewhere between her fifth and sixth orgasms, Anko's cursed seal wavered into visibility and began to move. He had a moment of serious concern before he realized that it wasn't activating.

No, it was…unfolding. Most advanced seals were made up of hundreds, if not thousands of symbols, but competent seal masters almost always designed them to shrink into an unreadable mass when they were finished. After all, it was almost impossible to unravel a seal whose components you couldn't even see. Orochimaru's work tended to be especially paranoid in this regard, with multiple layers of booby traps and defenses against all the usual decryption techniques. That was one reason why even Tsunade and Jiraiya had never been able to remove his so-called Heaven Seal.

Yet before his astonished eyes the outer layer of Anko's cursed seal expanded into a three-inch circle of small but perfectly readable symbols.

Anko made a small sound of complaint, and he realized he'd been so distracted he'd lost his rhythm. So he called up a clone to study the seal, and forcefully turned his attention back to the task of driving his new partner out of her mind with pleasure.

-oOoOo-

Back in Konoha a pigeon that wasn't any sort of bird watched the entrance to the Hyuuga compound warily. Hinata hadn't emerged for two days now, and he was starting to get concerned. Knowing her family her father had probably just assigned her some stupid punishment for having the nerve to complain to him, but he really wanted to confirm with his own eyes that she was alright. He was pretty sure she had a team meeting this morning, since Kiba and Shino were already at Team Eight's usual spot, but she was running late.

He briefly wondered if he'd missed her, but the number of disguised clones that currently surrounded the estate made that unlikely. Oh, a skilled Hyuuga might be able to pick out which innocuous animals and passing civilians were really disguised ninja, but he was pretty sure Hinata wasn't stealthy enough to sneak past him. Besides, why would she want to?

Finally a stray cat on the other side of the estate spotted the girl's familiar figure slipping out a side door, and he sighed in relief. He signaled the other watchers, and went back to sunning himself. The blood clone who'd arrived from Sea Country a few hours earlier checked a bird's-eye view of her route, and picked a deserted stretch of side street halfway to the training grounds to intercept her.

She stiffened when she saw him, and he stopped awkwardly a few feet away. She looked ok, but his subconscious was telling him he was missing something important.

"Are you alright?" He finally asked.

She swallowed, and looked away. "As well as can be expected. It didn't go well."

"I figured that. Guess I should have followed you in after all." Sure, he probably would have ended up fighting the whole clan, but those guys obviously needed a good ass-kicking.

"No, that would have been worse. At least you're safe."

He snorted. "I'm not the one who's in danger here. I'm trying not to spread this around too much, but… Hinata, one of my clones fought Itachi yesterday and won. I'm not afraid of your father. I don't know what things are really like for you in there, but if it ever gets to where you want to tell them off and walk away you'll always have a place to go."

She stared at him. "Are you serious, Naruto? I knew you were strong, but…"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm serious. He got away, but he's the one who had to run. So don't think you have to keep me out of the loop to protect me. You're my friend, and I want to help."

The shy girl blinked back tears. "I wish I'd known. If only… but no, I didn't realize then what would happen. I'm sorry, Naruto, but it's too late for me."

"What? What do you mean?" He looked her over again anxiously. She seemed normal enough, though her loose pants and bulky coat could certainly hide all sorts of hidden injuries. Her new outfit was even more concealing that the one she'd worn as a genin. But surely even an ass like her father wouldn't seriously hurt his own daughter?

Then he remembered that she'd worn her forehead protector around her neck the last time he'd seen her. Today she wore it on her head, and her bangs had been trimmed so they wouldn't cover it.

He clenched his fists as he stared at it. "They didn't."

She hung her head sadly. "Yes. Hanabi is the heir now, and I have been moved to the b-branch house."

The cloud of killing intent that sprang up around Naruto would have killed any civilian unlucky enough to be caught in it, so it was lucky the street was mostly deserted.

"Some day I'm going to be Hokage," Naruto said slowly. "And when that happens, this is going to stop. I don't care if I have to kill every elder in the village and break every one of the clans. My Konoha is not going to be a place where paranoid old men get to enslave their kids to hoard power. Hinata, I know you can't afford to go against that bastard now, but I swear to you I'm going to find a way to set you free. Believe it."

"I do," she whispered. "I've always believed in you. If you find a way, I would like nothing better than to leave that place." She paused to gather her courage, and went on. "Naruto, father is sure to arrange a m-marriage for me soon."

"Of course," Naruto growled. "Because he hasn't fucked with you enough yet. Probably some stupid political thing to get him even more power."

"Not exactly," she corrected gently. "Hyuuga women never leave the clan, because of our bloodline. So he'll find a clanless ninja with techniques the Hyuuga would find useful, and use the marriage to bring him into the clan."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Oh, really? We might be able to work with that. But first, is he still mad enough not to object if you get sent to do something really dangerous?"

"At the moment that man would be perfectly content to send me on a suicide mission. But that will change once his temper cools and he can walk without a limp again."

Naruto stared. "Once he can…oh, man. Hinata, you rock."

She blushed and looked away. "I lost."

"Not for long," he replied decisively. "Just hang in there for a few days. I think I can get you assigned to a mission away from the village for awhile without anyone knowing I was involved, and that should give us time to figure out something more permanent."

"Thank you, Naruto. I shall try not to kill anyone before then."


	5. Laying Plans

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. Nor do I particularly want to. Now Anko, on the other hand…

**Author's Note:** Visit my blog (link in my profile) for comments, Q&A, background and other assorted posts related to my writing.

* * *

"…and then stud-boy here finished kicking Kisame's ass while his clones patched me up," Anko concluded airily. She was surprisingly chipper for a woman who'd nearly died the day before, but food and a nap on the flight back had done wonders for her. "You should have seen fish-face's look when all those clones unloaded on him at the same time. He must have taken three or four of those big wind attacks, what do you call that thing?"

"Spiral Wind Cannon," Naruto replied. Anko was perched on the arm of his chair running her fingers through his hair, which would have been rather nice if they hadn't been in Tsunade's office. "Yeah, there wasn't much left of the body. But since Itachi was using a possession technique I think we'd better assume he was too."

"I agree," Tsunade put in. "There was nothing at stake worth risking their lives over, so if they'd actually been there they would have pulled out long before the fight reached that point. Still, I'm impressed you did so well against them."

"Thanks, Tsunade. I'm still a little worried that Itachi learned more than I did from that fight, but I guess that just means I'll have to cook up more surprises for him before we meet again."

"Stud, you've already got more tricks than most hidden villages," Anko teased. "Oh, and I think we can call this team assignment a success boss."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I had the impression you were too badly hurt for there to be any issues anyway. Speaking of which, you don't look like you're recovering from a near-fatal injury."

"After helping stud-boy here beat two S-rank enemies at the same time? I was all over him as soon as I could move. But I think you finally found a guy who's man enough to handle me."

One of her hands drifted inside Naruto's shirt, only to be removed and trapped behind her back a moment later. "I'm glad you approve, Anko-chan," Naruto said dryly. "Now do you think you could stop trying to make out with me in the Hokage's office? Otherwise I might have to call her granny again and use you as a shield."

Anko pouted and pulled away as Tsunade chuckled. "I'm glad things are going well. And the injury? Naruto, did you somehow get trained as a medic-nin on top of everything else?"

Naruto and Anko exchanged an embarrassed look. "Ah, no," he answered after a moment. "All I've got is some basic first aid stuff, and those emergency field treatment techniques ANBU came up with for non-medics. But she was in really bad shape, and that sword of Kisame's does something to screw up normal medical techniques, so I kinda had to, um, use a forbidden technique to give her my regeneration bloodline."

"You what?!" Tsunade shouted.

Anko hung her head in embarrassment. "Sorry, boss. I know I shouldn't have gotten torn up that bad in the first place."

"Shut up, you. Naruto, how the hell can you be doing bloodline transfers without even being a medic-nin? That's an S-rank technique, and there are only two or three people in the world who can pull it off."

Naruto's face tightened. "I took a shortcut. You know how sometimes really nasty summoners will contact a demon god and bargain with them for power? I've got a variation on the technique the gods use to carry out a pact like that. You imprint some of your blood with a transformation array keyed to part of your own nature, plus a stupidly huge amount of chakra, and pour it into the subject. It either transforms them to have the same nature, or kills them."

"Good god, Naruto! Where did you learn a technique like that? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

"Yeah, I do." Naruto replied evenly. "Tsunade, she had a punctured lung and major blood loss, and I was having trouble getting her stable even without moving her. She had maybe one chance in three of living long enough for me to fly her back here, and that's assuming the problems that funky sword caused didn't get worse. But my regeneration can handle just about anything as long as I don't run out of chakra, and I was pretty sure we had enough left between us to do the transfer and make sure she survived it. It was a crappy situation, but I figured that was the best chance I could give her."

Tsunade opened her mouth to argue…and closed it. She sighed. "You're right. If it was that bad even a risky operation would be better than the alternative. Damn it, we've got to do something about this shortage of real medics. If you'd had someone like Shizune or Sakura with you that wouldn't have been necessary."

"I know," Naruto said. "Or if we'd had a full squad, there's a good chance no one would have gotten hurt badly in the first place."

"True," the Hokage admitted. "I was hoping for more time, but if Akatsuki is already on the move we need to get your squad assembled now. Have you thought about who you want?"

"Besides Anko-chan? How about Hinata? Her Byakugan and recon training would be a big help, and she's so hard to hit even a serious opponent would have trouble pinning her down. For that matter, her and Anko could tag-team someone like Kisame pretty well too."

"Hmm." Tsunade wasn't thrilled with the idea of leaving Anko with him, since she'd intended that as a temporary assignment. But things seemed to be going well enough between them that she hated to separate the pair already, and leaving the special jounin on Naruto's team might be a good way to give them the extra punch they'd need against high-level opponents. Of course, that meant assigning another male ninja to the team would be inadvisable. If she did Anko would no doubt end up hospitalizing the poor guy, which wouldn't be good for anyone.

"Alright," she decided. "You can have Hinata, but I want you to have a real medic along too. Sakura is about ready for a new team, and she's the best one we're likely to have available anytime soon. Hell, she's probably the third best in the village, behind Shizune and I."

"Sakura?" Naruto brightened at the thought of his old teammate, but then he considered the idea of her facing someone like Kisame and frowned. "I'd love to have her, but can she fight at that level now?"

Tsunade chuckled. "Medic-nin training is more than just patching people up, kid. Her taijutsu's good, she's great at dodging and I've taught her my strength techniques. I'm more worried about the flak I'm going to catch over sending you out with an all-female team."

"Aw, don't you think he deserves his own personal kunoichi harem?" Anko interjected. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle when I show them the ropes."

Tsunade and Naruto both rolled their eyes.

"If you say stuff like that around Sakura one of us is going to get killed," Naruto complained. "But about that, what if we arrange things so no one knows? If Sakura's that good no one would be surprised if you assigned her to a secret ANBU team for awhile, and I happen to know that Hiashi isn't going to object if Hinata gets drafted for a risky assignment. Meanwhile I can have a clone pretend to be the real me on some other kind of duty. Let's see, you keep complaining about the medic-nin shortage. Now that I'm a jounin I've got the clearance to take over some of Shizune's grunt work, so she could have time to start training up some newbies."

"That's not a bad idea, Naruto," Tsunade said thoughtfully. "There are three or four genin who'd make good candidates, and if we can give them regular training between missions for a few months we might actually get somewhere. But I'm surprised to hear you volunteering to do paperwork."

"Hey, I have to learn to deal with it if I want to wear the hat someday, right? Besides, I was hoping I could talk you into letting me put a clone in Shizune's class. I can pretend to be a kid if I need to, and my chakra control may not be perfect but I can spend a lot more time practicing than anyone else."

Tsunade's eyes flicked to Anko and back. "Even though you'll have Sakura with your team?"

Naruto nodded. "What if Sakura's the one who gets hurt next time? Besides, I've got clones all over the place and you never know what kind of trouble one of them might get into. I don't ever want to be in that situation again."

"Alright, Naruto. Come up with a cover story explaining why a genin kunoichi no one's ever heard of is taking Shizune's new medic-nin class. If she approves it you're in. But you're going to have to stick with this for at least six months, ok? I know you can practice everything at once but the other students can't, and I want this to last long enough to do them some good."

Naruto agreed readily enough, but the Hokage still had concerns. "If we're going to call you an ANBU team you've got a lot to get up to speed on and not much time. I'm sure Jiraiya covered the basics, but you'll need to know current codes and procedures, get masks and gear, that sort of thing. Anko, can you handle all of that?"

"Sure," the assassin replied. "Assuming you write us a team formation order and back whatever story we put out. But we should stay away from the rest of ANBU until we've got the whole team up to speed, or we're going to have trouble. A lot of people are going to be pissed that Naruto got promoted so fast, and they'll test us pretty hard if they get the chance."

"Good point." Tsunade leaned back in here chair to consider the problem. Normally ANBU recruited newly promoted chuunin, putting them through a secret six-month training program that was supposed to turn them into elite black ops specialists before putting them back on active duty. Privately she wasn't impressed with the results – Naruto's antics were just the latest demonstration of how porous their security was, and when it came to actual combat ANBU teams had an unfortunate tendency to die heroically instead of winning.

But she didn't have the political capital to reform the organization at the moment, thanks to Konoha's eternal manpower crisis. Too many clan heads were convinced that the current system was working, and the village couldn't afford to waste resources fixing something that wasn't broken.

So she'd left it alone for years, and that meant ANBU was still an organization everyone wanted to be a former member of. Most ninja only stayed in for two or three years, especially if they won a promotion. The few special jounin and jounin who stayed in ANBU were long-term veterans who were likely to take Naruto's promotion as a personal insult, especially if he didn't display the same specialized skills that they'd worked so hard to master. As long as Naruto's ANBU membership was just a bureaucratic technicality they'd look the other way, but if he showed up at ANBU headquarters with a mask and a team without even going through their training course they'd close ranks and do anything they could to undermine him.

On the other hand, maybe that lack of resources wasn't such a problem anymore. It all came down to whether Naruto was really as good as he thought he was.

"Naruto, how many active infiltrations do you have going on in other villages?" She asked suddenly.

"Um, a lot. You really want me to give details right now? Some of them are pretty delicate, and I've only got one good shot at this. Once word gets out about what I can do everyone's going to get a lot more paranoid about checking out their academy students and orphan recruits and stuff. I'd hate to loose my best shot at some of the secret techniques I'm after because a hint got out."

Exactly the kind of answer a competent spymaster would give. "So you're running real missions then. Ok, how about assassinations?"

His eyes narrowed. "I've helped Jiraiya out with quiet take-downs on Akatsuki agents a few times, and I was the inside guy on the raid that took out that Sound cell up in Waterfall Country last year. Where are you going with this?"

"Another little project I've been wanting to get to ever since I got the hat. We're going to call this…Experimental Team Orange. Officially you don't exist, and confidentially we'll tell ANBU you're an experimental team designed to take down S-rank opponents like Akatsuki. Those guys drop like flies whenever a high-level fight breaks out, so they aren't going to want anything to do with a project like that. You'll still wear masks, but you'll have a uniform that's different enough from regular ANBU that no one would confuse the two. Take tomorrow to get the details worked out, and then the day after you can collect the girls and go on a training mission."

"We'll keep you out of town for a couple of months, either training or on missions depending on circumstances," Tsunade continued. "Naruto, you'll keep a clone with me so I can contact you quickly when we get reports of Akatsuki activity. Let me know what you need in the way of additional instructors or equipment, and I'll see what I can do. If Akatsuki is really going operational your team's bound to have some good war stories by the time you come back to town, which should go a long way towards defusing any remaining hostility."

Anko snickered. "Those Akatsuki guys are out hunting jinchuuriki and bijuu, and our team's going to stop them? Yeah, no one's gong to fuck with us after that."

--oOoOo--

Shizune slipped quietly into her teacher's office after the pair left, and locked the door.

"Well?" she asked. "How is he?"

Tsunade chuckled. "Apparently the little scamp had hidden depths. You know how she's always fondling any male in arm's reach? Well, when she tried it during our meeting he told her to stop, and she actually did."

"Oh my," Shizune exclaimed. "That is something. So, he isn't having any trouble with her? I was afraid she'd find some way to trick him and, well, you know how she is."

"Not at all. The funny thing is she actually seemed happy about it. I suppose that makes sense if you think about it, though. It must be a relief to finally meet someone who can tell her no and make it stick."

"That's true," Shizune replied. "It must have been awful for her, knowing she could lose control at any moment. Maybe she'll even discover that it's possible to have a relationship without sex being involved."

"We can only hope."

--oOoOo--

Anko was so eager she barely remembered to disarm all of the traps as she pulled Naruto into her apartment.

"Come on, stud!" She purred. "That thing you did last time was fun, but I want to see this legendary stamina of yours in action. Anko needs a jumbo order of tube steak right fucking now!"

Naruto laughed as he kicked the door shut, blocking out the glare of the setting sun. "If you're always in this much of a hurry maybe you shouldn't wear that mesh bodysuit. How do you get out of that thing anyway?"

Anko grinned and formed a seal. "Serpentine Body Technique!" She laughed and slithered out of her mesh armor's neck hole, flipping through the air with unnaturally boneless fluidity to land back on her feet as she cancelled the technique. "Ta da! Sexy-time Anko, arriving!"

"Ok then. That was both hot and disturbing. What is it with you and snakes, anyway?"

"They remind me of my favorite thing in the world, of course! Now are you going to get naked and do me, or do I have to tie you up and apply some persuasion first?" Anko wrapped her arms around him and idly began hitting pressure points.

A pair of clones appeared from nowhere to grab her arms and pin them behind her back. "Quit that, you naughty psycho girl. No special techniques, or I'll show you what mine feel like at full power."

"Promise?" Anko replied eagerly.

--oOoOo--

In a hidden cave in northern Wind Country eight ninja in Akatsuki robes held a hastily-convened meeting. Only Deidera and Sasori were physically present, but the projections sent by the other members were more than sufficient for exchanging information.

The evening's revelations had not gone over well.

"So, you're saying you can't do it?" Deidera chortled. "The great Itachi, foiled by a genin!"

"I said that finding him will be difficult," Itachi corrected calmly. "He has dozens of clones spread across the elemental countries, and attacking one will immediately alert the others. We need a technique that will allow us to find the real one."

Pain considered what he knew of the Sharingan's abilities, and frowned. "The original was not connected to the clones you fought?"

Itachi shook his head. "No. He can make permanent clones somehow, and use those to anchor the temporary ones."

"Yeah, and his clones may only be jounin level but fighting that many at once is a bitch," Kisame complained. "So, do any of you guys have some trick that can find the real one?"

No one replied.

"Then it can't be helped," Pain said finally. "You'll have to find or create your own solution to the problem. Until then the rest of us will need to plan our operations on the assumption that the boy could interfere at any moment."

There was grumbling all around, but no one disagreed.

"What about the Suna operation?" Deidara asked. "You were supposed to be in position to block reinforcements from Konoha in a couple of days."

"Idiot. Obviously we need to re-plan the whole operation," Sasori growled.

"Yes," Pain confirmed. "It will take time to replace those decoys, and it's apparent that they would not have been enough in any event. Contact me again when you have a new plan."

--oOoOo--

Naruto spent the night. This, of course, led to another eventful morning and a bit of playful grab-ass in the shower afterwards, but over breakfast the pair finally got serious again.

"I'm not sure how we're actually going to set up a whole new unit in one day," Anko admitted as she rummaged in her tiny pantry. "The paperwork alone could take that long. Then there's uniforms, insignia, equipment, codes, training programs and who knows what else. Aha!" She came up with a box of pocky, and fished out a stick. "I knew I had some left!"

Naruto looked up from the stove to raise an eyebrow. "You call that breakfast?"

"Hey, I'm a busy girl. No time for messing around in the kitchen."

"In other words you can't cook," Naruto guessed.

"Yeah, you got me. How'd you know?"

"Your pantry looks like mine used to. I guess rice balls will have to do for now." Naruto checked the timer on the rice cooker, and brought the tea he'd just finished making over to the table. "So, do you know Shadow Clone?"

Anko opted to perch on the edge of the table rather than use one of the battered chairs. "Sure, but I can't use it like you do. Keeping even a couple of them going would wipe me out in an hour."

Warned by his companion's odd habits Naruto checked the chairs, and noted that both were trapped. Not wanting a dozen poisoned needles in the posterior he decided that leaning against the wall was his safest option.

"I think I can help with that. I've got this technique for sharing chakra that I use to transfer energy between my clones, but I've never tried it on someone else because I'm afraid I'd accidentally transfer some of the Kyuubi's chakra too. Even the tiniest amount of that stuff would give a normal person chakra poisoning. But now that you've got my bloodline that shouldn't be a problem, so I ought to be able to lend you chakra all day."

"Seriously?" Anko grinned. "Have I mentioned today that you're the best team leader I've ever had?"

"I think you might have said something like that earlier, yeah," Naruto replied with a smile. "But it's still good to hear. So, I figure we have a couple of clones take care of the paperwork together, then another pair can figure out the equipment issues while we think about training. Once we know what we need I can send a bunch of guys out to run errands around town, so we can get everything done at once. Even so we'll probably run into something that takes more than a day to get done, but it should be close enough."

"You've done this a lot," Anko observed. "Ooh, can I design the uniforms?"

"Do you actually want to, or is this just an excuse to make Hinata wear fishnet?"

Anko pouted. "Hey! I resemble that remark!"

They both laughed.

"But seriously," she went on. "Gear is crucial for surviving serious missions, so I wouldn't screw with my teammates that way. I do think we should actually make it sexy, since we're mostly hot kunoichi and a lot of guys won't kill you if they're busy drooling over your tits. But practical is important too. I'm thinking full-body mesh armor, the fancy summoned stuff that's stretchy and breathes and looks like it's painted on from a distance. No rigid armor for us, that crap slows you down and it won't stop anything serious anyway. Lots of pouches for tools – shuriken, kunai, wire, explosive tags, gas grenades, maybe some summoning scrolls if we can get them. I know a place that makes custom web gear, so we can work out a standard loadout and then let everyone customize it."

"This is already sounding expensive," Naruto objected. "Tsunade's not going to be happy if we get carried away."

"Like she's going to send us after Akatsuki with chuunin-grade gear? Please. Let's see, add chakra-forged steel bracers for parrying, and good boots of course. A long coat so we don't have to burn chakra on cold resistance in foul weather, but no backpacks. We need to be able to move fast, and anyway we should all be able to use storage scrolls for stuff like tents and supplies."

The rice cooker dinged, and Naruto moved back to the kitchen.

"It sounds like you've thought this through," he called over his shoulder. "But you're talking at least forty thousand ryo per person, so I'd love to hear how you're going to talk granny into paying for it. Oh, and not everyone is an exhibitionist, so let's at least give them the option of another layer over it."

"There you go, spoiling all my fun again."

It was a busy morning even with a dozen clones at work, but fortunately Naruto's Chakra Link technique worked more or less as expected. Most of the chakra he tried to loan his partner was lost in the process, probably due to differences between their chakra signatures. But even so it was no strain at all to keep her topped off while she maintained a half-dozen clones, and their organizational work went quickly.

Anko was a little put out when Naruto vetoed her plan to talk Tsunade into paying for the fancy armor she wanted, but he'd had a better idea.

"But boss, we need this stuff," she protested. "We can't send the kids out without armor or they're gonna die the first time we run into some guy who uses poison. I know it's expensive, but if we go with the ANBU stuff instead it'll slow them down too much."

"I know, I know," Naruto reassured her. "I'm not saying I don't want armor, and you're totally right about the mobility issue. I just realized we've got a better option."

"What?" Anko asked suspiciously. "I haven't heard of anything better, and I do have a few contacts."

"Oh, just a little something my clones up in Snow country have been involved in. Trust me, you'll like it."

"I'm not exactly the trusting type, boss," Anko complained. "But ok, I guess you can be mysterious if you want. Just make sure we've got it soon, so we can have the newbies train with it. I'm pretty sure they'll both need time to adjust to anything they're not used to."

By lunch time the paperwork was largely finished, the new team's basic gear was on order, and they'd decided to dump the issue of private codes and signaling techniques on Sakura once she was on board. As Naruto pointed out, there was no sense in having a brainiac on your team if you didn't make use of her.

Unfortunately they were both starving by then, so the choice of dining location for lunch was a bit more contentious…

"Dango!"

"Ramen!"

"Dango!"

"No way, ramen is best!"

"Fuck that, nothing beats dango!"

"Fine, you get dango, I'll get ramen. I'll meet you at graining ground seventeen in an hour."

…but eventually they found a satisfactory resolution. After stuffing themselves separately the troublesome pair eventually found their way to the training grounds for their daily dose of recreational violence. Naruto was a few minutes late, having taken the opportunity to catch up on recent memory updates from his other clones. After discovering the details of Hinata's plight he was definitely ready to blow something up.

He found Anko sitting on a fence post at the edge of the training ground with a wicked-looking combat knife in hand. As he approached she cut her finger, paused, licked the blood off and giggled maniacally.

"This is so fucking cool!" She exclaimed as she noticed him. She cut her finger again, and focused chakra into the wound. The shallow cut immediately closed back up, and she licked her finger clean again.

"Yes! This is the most kickass trick ever! I can hardly wait to surprise some asshole with it in a real fight."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You really are a psycho, you know that?"

"Oh, this from the guy who can't even spar without dying a few hundred times?" Anko shot back. "You know, the other jounin all think you're nuts because of the way you use Shadow Clone."

"You get used to it," he said with a shrug.

"Dying is not something you're supposed to do so much you get used to it!" She frowned. "Hey, what's eating you? I thought we had our shit squared away."

"I'm just worried about Hinata. When we were talking to Tsunade I knew there was another reason I wanted her with us, but I hadn't had a chance to sort out the details yet. I can't believe her father put a Caged Bird seal on her."

"Oh. Yeah, the Hyuuga are like that. Personally I never saw why the Hokage lets them get away with that crap, but what do I know? I guess we'd have to kill a bunch of old geezers to make them stop, but people get all bent out of shape when I ask why that's a problem." Anko idly balanced the knife point-first on her fingertip.

"It may come to that, actually. But I have to get granny to go along with whatever I do, and I'm not sure how to pull that off yet."

"Well, if we get to clean house count me in. I've been wanting to knife some of those smug assholes for years." She flipped the knife into the air and hopped off the post while dusting her hands. A moment later the blade dropped cleanly into its sheath at her hip, and she laid a hand on the hilt.

"So, what are you thinking for training?"

Naruto almost smiled at the casual display of skill. This was going to be a great team.

"Well, I've thought of a bunch of tricks we could work on, and I still want to pick your brain later for ideas on what to do with Hinata and Sakura. But considering your fire attacks and my wind jutsu, there's one thing it would just be a crime not to get down right away."

Anko grinned. "Combination attacks? Oh, I like the sound of that. You just do that aura thing and I'll be right in tune with you. Only I think we're going to need a bigger training ground."

"Or we could try it with small jutsu first…" Naruto corrected.

"Spoilsport," his companion pouted. "Ok, I guess we can stick with piddly little stuff for now."

Their first few tries were more comedic than menacing, but in less than an hour the pair were successfully combining Anko's Fireball with Naruto's Windstorm to flash-fry a good-sized patch of the rocky field. Then they tried Grand Fireball with Great Cutting Whirlwind, and the resulting firestorm nearly filled the training ground.

"Whoo hoo!" Anko shouted with glee. "That's more like it! Let's try it with something bigger!"

"I think the Aburame might get pissed if we spill over the boundary and burn down half their clan compound," Naruto replied. "Is it just me, or is this going a lot easier than normal?"

"The aura thing really does help, stud, and so does the sex. There's no one easier to sync with that a guy you just did the nasty with."

"If so say so, psycho-chan. Well, I think we've got the massive damage category covered here. What do you have that might work for a tight, high-penetration type attack?"

"Tight penetration's your job, stud," Anko shot back with a cheery grin. "Unless that's a hint for me to pull out the old strap-on?" Naruto rolled his eyes, and she stuck her tongue out at him. "Ok, seriously? That's hard to do with fire attacks. Maybe if you throw your Spiral Wind Cannon, and I feed a Fire Dragon in a split second later?"

"Right, and then Tsunade makes us pay for all the buildings we blew up. Let's try it with a Fireball first and see how big the blast comes out."

--oOoOo--

At first Sakura was excited when Tsunade told her that she was being put back on active duty. In her mind that was the same as saying she'd finally completed her long apprenticeship, and she was thrilled at the confirmation of her teacher's faith in her abilities. But nothing that came after that made any sense.

Her teacher refused to give her any details about her new team or assignment, maintaining that it was classified and she'd find out the details when she showed up. But then she said Sakura should expect to be in the field for a month or two, which didn't add up. The only assignments that would be that classified were a long-term infiltration or ANBU, and as far as she knew Konoha didn't actually use sleeper agents anymore. But ANBU recruits always started with their six-month training course, and besides she was pretty sure their next class wasn't due to start until after the chuunin exam.

So she packed for a long field mission, but put her camping gear and spare clothing into storage scrolls where it wouldn't be in the way if she found herself in a training camp instead. Weapons, first aid supplies and a few exploding tags would do for most assignments, and if she needed more she could always unpack it. After a bit of thought she also sealed up her medical references, extra medical supplies, a plentiful supply of paper and ink, a few carefully selected volumes on codes and seals, and the Konoha bingo book she'd only recently been issued.

She was even more puzzled the next morning, when she showed up at the appointed meeting room in the Hokage's tower to find Hinata already waiting there. She couldn't imagine the shy girl being picked to join ANBU, but it was equally unlikely that they were both being assigned to the same team. The one-kunoichi-per-team limit was almost universally enforced in Konoha, for the rather sensible reason that the village had four times as many male ninja as females.

Sakura stopped in the doorway to study the Hyuuga girl for a moment before asking, "You're here for a team assignment too?"

Hinata nodded. "Yes."

"Huh. I don't suppose you have any idea what's going on?"

Hinata shrugged. "No. But now that you're here, perhaps ANBU-san will tell us."

"Who?" Sakura set her pack down and looked around suspiciously. Hinata's Byakugan hadn't looked active, but that didn't mean as much as the uninformed might think. The Hyuuga had a whole array of special techniques for manipulating their bloodline's behavior, from partial activation to masking genjutsu. And speaking of genjutsu, she was picking up faint traces of an invisibility technique. She focused her awareness, locking onto the hint of a third presence in the room. Right….there, on the ceiling! "Dispel!"

The genjutsu cleared to reveal a purple-haired woman in an ANBU uniform, who dropped gracefully to the floor and clapped. "Not bad, you two. Maybe you really will be up to this assignment."

"That would be encouraging if we had any idea what this assignment is, ma'am," Sakura replied. "I don't suppose we get to find out yet?" She noticed that the woman's mask didn't fit the usual ANBU animal motif. Instead it was…an oni? Yes, a snarling demon face, with a prominent orange slash on one cheek. Interesting.

The older woman chuckled. "What, here in spy central? Do you realize how many people are listening in on this?"

"I have three definite spies and more than a dozen possibles," Hinata answered softly.

"Exactly. This place is a prime target for anyone who wants to know what's going on in the village, so there's no point in trying to keep anything secure here. Unless you're going to get really exotic with security seals it's a lost cause, and none of us are going to be putting up an array like the one on the Hokage's office anytime soon. Stick close and keep an eye out for tails, and let's hit the road."

There wasn't much to say to that, so Sakura held her peace while the small party made their way across town and out the west gate. They took to the trees almost immediately, and half a mile later she was pretty sure they weren't being followed by anything more substantial than random insects.

Hmm. If their leader was going to be paranoid they might as well be thorough about it. Besides, it might make a good impression.

"Hinata, can you check us for tracking bugs?" Sakura asked as they crossed another fast-moving stream.

The Hyuuga girl blinked in surprise, then nodded. "Yes. I should have thought of that."

Sakura expected her to call a halt, but she simply activated her Byakugan and shifted her head back and forth a few times. Then she reached back to pluck an insect off the back of her own coat, and held it up to examine it. She released it with a hint of a smile, and it flew back towards Konoha.

"One of Shino's?" Sakura asked.

"Yes," Hinata replied. Then her hand flashed out to pluck something off Sakura's jacket. "But this one isn't."

"I was wondering when you'd notice," the ANBU woman called back. "Kill it and keep on. Hinata, do another check every mile or so until we're well away from town. Oh, and I guess we can lose the other tail now too."

A kunai flashed through the air to impale a crow that had just landed on a nearby branch. To Sakura's surprise the bird immediately dissolved into a pool of ink.

"Um, ma'am, are we just having a bad day or is whatever we're up to attracting a lot of interest?" Or maybe the whole situation was a test of some kind, but she wasn't going to come out and say that.

"Welcome to black ops, kid," the ANBU replied. "Every time we take a piss the whole village wants to know about it. They'll back off now that they know we're not all rookies, though. There's nothing harder to follow without being spotted than a fast-moving party of ninja, and no one's going to risk getting caught over a little random curiosity. Come on."

She picked up the pace after that, and the younger kunoichi found themselves hard-pressed to keep up. They crossed the rest of the Konoha security zone and cut across a wide stretch of farmland beyond, leaving a trail of startled peasants in their wake as they bounded across the open fields at forty miles per hour. Then they were back in unsettled lands, ghosting through the endless miles of hilly forest that made up most of northern Fire Country.

They'd put another hundred miles behind them by the time noon approached, and their leader finally slowed as she made her way into the mouth of a remote valley. She stopped on a branch with a clear view of the valley floor, and scanned the area carefully before turning to face her companions.

"Ok girls, time for your final clue check. How do you know I'm not an infiltrator who lured you out here to take you prisoner? Sakura, you first."

Sakura frowned and extended her senses. It was a little late for games like this, but she'd play long. "You knew where and when to meet us, so you've got inside information on classified missions. I checked the security seal on your mask before we left the tower, and it matches the ID sensei told me to expect. Hinata recognizes you, so you're not an infiltrator who murdered our contact and stole her mask. So unless you're an S-rank genjutsu master you're really the person we're supposed to be meeting, which means we're good unless you're a long-term sleeper agent." _And if you are you're about to get the surprise of your life, because I feel Naruto's chakra somewhere nearby._

"So the Hokage taught you to read security seals? Good, we can use that. Hinata, your turn."

"Yes, Anko-san. The security seal and you identity, of course. Also, I've read most of the documents in your storage scrolls as we've traveled, including our mission orders. I'm fairly confident that there are no genjutsu masters who could create such an illusion."

Sakura whistled. "You can read rolled-up documents inside a storage scroll's space fold, while moving? I knew you were good at recon, Hinata, but I had no idea you were that good. Why aren't you a jounin already?"

"I haven't asked," Hinata replied. "And I can, but peering through warped space gives me a terrible headache. I try not to unless it's necessary."

Anko chuckled. "I'll bet. But I could still be a sleeper agent."

"Your seal isn't active, and you'd die before you betrayed the village of your own will," Hinata protested. "Besides, Naruto is here. Anything he's involved in is something I'd join willingly."

"Aw, isn't that sweet? Reminds me of when I was your age," Anko said as she removed her mask. "What about you, pinkie? If Naruto was organizing a revolution would you sign up?"

Sakura opened her mouth to deny the ridiculous accusation, but then she realized she was looking at the question backwards. "Naruto is probably the most loyal person I've ever met, so I'd have to say anything that could convince him to turn would probably convince me too. But Tsunade-sensei would say the same thing, and it's not a rebellion if the Hokage is in on it."

"Heh. Good one, I'll have to remember it. Ok, girls, listen up because this is your last chance to back out. You're about to join a new experimental unit called Team Orange, which is going to be like ANBU except that we actually win fights. Our mission is to stop a group of S-rank ninja called Akatsuki, who apparently want to conquer the world by corning the market on bijuu. That means we either kill a bunch of guys who think they're tough enough to take on bijuu and jinchuuriki, or we take out the bijuu and foreign jinchuuriki ourselves."

"Obviously we aren't going to do this alone, but since we're the only team Konoha has with an S-rank fighter we're gonna be the ones doing the heavy lifting. So you know how everyone always says 'we're good as long as we're not up against an S-rank such-and-such, and what are the odds of that?' Well, on this team that's exactly what we're up against every day of the week. So in between missions we're going to train night and day, we're going to dredge up every cheap power-up and dirty trick we can get our grubby little hands on, and we're never going to get complacent about thinking we know what our enemies can and can't do."

"I figure by the time this fight's over we're either going to be the most badass motherfuckers in the elemental countries, or we're all going to be six feet under. Assuming there's anything left to bury, which come to think of it isn't likely. Anyone have a problem with that?"

"I don't back down that easy, Anko," Sakura growled. "Sensei thinks I can do this. I'm in."

Hinata licked her lips and took a deep breath. _Naruto needs me!_ She thought eagerly. _I can help with this_. "I accept this assignment."

"Good," Anko said. "Then let's go meet the boss."


	6. Team Orange

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

**Author's Note:** Check out my blog (link in my profile), for rant's, Q&A, release plans and other assorted info related to my stories.

* * *

"Do either of you have an elemental manipulation yet?" Naruto asked briskly. "For that matter, what are your affinities?"

"Water. Um, I taught myself the leaf exercise, but father didn't approve of a Hyuuga learning elemental techniques."

Sakura was so dazed that she barely noticed Hinata's soft response. Naruto was their team leader? Naruto!? Sure he was powerful, but since when did he have the brains to run an elite ninja team?

"Well, it's not up to him anymore," Naruto said definitely. "With your control it's a crime you don't have more ninjutsu to work with. I can show you some mist techniques that'll probably double your combat power, and hardly take any chakra at all. How about you, Sakura?"

She started. "Fire, and it took me about five minutes to get the manipulation down. But I don't have enough chakra to do anything significant with it, so I've been training taijutsu and Tsunade's strength technique instead."

The blond ninja nodded. "Makes sense. How about genjutsu? Kakashi always thought you were a natural at that, and it doesn't rely on raw power."

His uniform was mostly black, with orange stripes down the sleeves and an orange flame pattern on his long coat. With his confident expression and businesslike manner he reminded her of the pictures she'd seen of the Fourth Hokage.

Sakura dragged her attention back to the conversation again. "After that mission we did in Moon Country I did a lot of training on counter-techniques, and I can see through just about anything at this point. But I've never had time to get good at creating illusions. I've picked up a few basic techniques, but they aren't going to work on the kind of enemy we're worried about."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Naruto replied. "Ok, we can work this. I'm sure you're both wondering by now what kind of training we're going to do that would actually make a difference against S-rank opponents, right?" Both the younger girls nodded, and even Anko looked a bit interested. He chuckled as he went on. "Right. It took you years to work your way up to chuunin level, and Anko's been a special jounin for almost five years now. It's not like any of you have been slacking off either, so how is a few weeks here going to give you a big improvement?"

"The answer to that starts with an easy question. Why is it that we've all spent so many years training in things like taijutsu and stealth, when anyone with decent chakra control could learn a whole school of simple battle techniques in a couple of months?"

Anko snorted. "If that's all you've got you might as well be a samurai. You need stealth and awareness to even find a real enemy, and without the taijutsu any genin can take you down with one hit."

Naruto nodded. "Exactly. Jiraiya always said your basic skills are like a foundation, and they've got to be solid before you can build anything on them. So we all spend most of our time studying this stuff that's so deep it takes years to get anywhere at it – taijutsu, medical techniques, puppet techniques, genjutsu, the list just goes on and on. Then we finally get decent at the stuff we're specializing in, and our sensei shows us a few handy combat techniques that build on that. It works out pretty well, but I've noticed something interesting in the last few months."

He leaned back against one of the massive trees that covered the valley, and put his hands behind his head. "I've had dozens of clones infiltrating all sorts of groups lately, and they've learned a lot of techniques. Including a lot of secret stuff. When I started putting it all together it hit me that just about every major group of ninja in the elemental countries has some kind of powerful, easy-to-learn technique they use as a force multiplier. But for every group it's a different technique."

Sakura frowned. "I don't get it. I mean, sure, I see what you're saying, but what does that have to do with us?"

"It matters because I've actually been learning their stuff," Naruto explained. "And force multipliers stack. Take Hinata, for example. She's already pretty tough in close combat, and between her speed and defensive techniques she can usually get past an enemy's ranged attacks so she can fight them hand to hand. Now imagine if we give her Zabuza's mist techniques, some poison gas attacks and immunity to the poison, poisoned shuriken that don't make sound as they pass through the air, and a clone technique that hardly takes any chakra at all to use. At that point even someone like Kakashi or Gai would have to work pretty hard to beat her, right?"

Hinata blushed and looked away. "I don't think I'm quite that good, N-Naruto."

"No, he's right," Sakura disagreed. "That would be a tough combination to beat. So the plan is you steal all these techniques and figure out which ones are easy to learn, and we each pick up a whole set of complimentary jutsu and special gear?"

"That's one part of it," Naruto agreed. "Another is the clone squads I'm going to assign each of you, and all the cool tricks they can pull."

A hawk swooped out of the sky towards their position, and the three kunoichi reflexively took cover. Naruto just waved. "Ah, and here comes part three."

The bird landed on the ground in front of him, and blurred into another Naruto.

"Uzumaki delivery service," he caroled. "Someone order a big can of whoop-ass?"

"Yeah, that's us," the one who'd been lecturing confirmed.

"Great. Here ya go." The messenger produced a large storage scroll and handed it over with a flourish. "Kick some ass for me, everyone!"

The messenger dispelled himself with only a faint wisp of smoke, and Sakura crept out from behind the tree where she'd taken cover. "What's that?"

Naruto grinned as he began unrolling the scroll. "Remember those guys we fought up in Snow Country a few years ago? The ones with the fancy chakra-powered armor that made them tougher than us, even though they were actually pretty wimpy as ninja?"

"Yes, of course. But I thought the seal masters who created all that equipment disappeared?" Sakura asked.

"Yukie-chan tracked them down a few months later. It turns out they were afraid they'd get executed for working for the wrong side, but we straightened that out. Snow Country doesn't have a real hidden village, so their ninja need all the help they can get." He released the seal, and a large pile of fabric and mechanical-looking odds and ends appeared in a puff of smoke. Most of it was unidentifiable, but the glassy blue power storage crystals were hard to miss.

Sakura gasped. "Chakra armor! You talked the Snow Queen into letting us use it?"

"Sure did. This isn't that crappy prototype stuff we fought before, either. I've been working with the seal masters up there for the last six months, powering their arrays for them and showing them what makes sense for real ninja. We solved that stupid feedback problem that made the old suits blow up if they ran into each other, got rid of the bulky metal plates, even replaced those silly pop-out bat wings with a real flight jutsu…"

"They can fly?!" Anko shrieked and clapped her hands. "Yes! Yes! I've always wanted to fly!"

"Um, yeah," Naruto scatched his head, a little nonplussed at the manic kunoichi's reaction. "It boosts your strength and speed some too. But the main point is the armor effect. The suit's covered with a special seal array that projects a wall of hard chakra when it's energized. It won't stop a really good armor-piercing jutsu, but none of your normal elemental attacks are going to penetrate it. Even a fire dragon just slides off."

Hinata fingered the silky material thoughtfully. "I'm surprised Snow Country would lend this kind of military technology to Konoha."

Naruto's expression turned serious. "They didn't. That's one thing we all need to be clear on. Yukie-chan loaned these suits to me, personally, not to Konoha. They're for team use only, and I've agreed to do whatever it takes to make sure they don't get stolen and reverse-engineered by anyone else. So if we're ever in town and some ANBU or council member tries to tell you to hand over your suit, call for backup and tell him no. We report directly to the Hokage anyway, so there's no one else in the village who can give you orders about that. Clear?"

They all agreed, with varying degrees of bemusement.

"Great! Then let's get you all fitted."

Naruto had to smile at the enthusiasm that statement generated. Anko was pumped over the prospect of being able to fly, and Sakura had fought chakra armor before so she knew exactly how big a power-up a good suit could be. Hinata was more reserved, but he could tell she was intrigued.

Unfortunately the new suits had to be very precisely tailored to their wearers, and while he'd been able to give the Snow Country armorers a pretty good idea of his team's measurements he was stuck doing the fine adjustments in the field. Even with a three-man clone team dedicated to each girl it was a couple of hours before the suits were ready.

There were also a few awkward moments along the way. Anko thought nothing of stripping down to her panties in the middle of the forest to get her suit fitted, but Naruto knew better that to expect Sakura or Hinata to do the same. So he'd had his clone bring down a set of leotards along with the armor, and he started by handing them over as he explained the fitting process.

Sakura fingered the thin material dubiously. "Are you sure this is really necessary? I don't remember the suits we fought being that tight."

"Actually the under-suits were, you just couldn't tell because they had all those layers of armor on top of them," Naruto answered. "There's a seal array built into the inside of the suit that has to be aligned just right along all your chakra pathways, or the suit's movements get out of synch with yours and throw you off. I know you and Hinata both use speed-oriented taijutsu, so your suit alignment needs to be as close to perfect as I can get it."

Anko frowned. "Does that mean I can't use elastic body techniques while I'm wearing this stuff?"

"Nah, that's why everything is made of these special chakra-reactive materials. Once you've worked with it for a few days this stuff takes on your chakra nature, and after that it might as well be part of your body as far as techniques go," Naruto grinned. "You'll want to go slow at first, but you should get the hang of it pretty quick. Just don't try to warp the storage crystal."

"Yeah, that sounds like it would be bad." Anko noticed the younger kunoichi still hesitating over their leotards and rolled her eyes. "Oh, grow up you two. If you think we're going to do serious ops together and never see each other naked you need to get your heads on straight. Shit happens."

"That doesn't mean we need to go out of our way to make it happen," Sakura shot back. "You can strip down in the middle of the woods if you want. I brought a tent. I'll set it up, and Hinata and I can change there."

"Fine, whatever. Just get to it, I want to try this out."

Naruto was very careful not to stare when Sakura emerged from her tent some minutes later wearing nothing but the thin black leotard. Well, the clones in front of her didn't stare. The trio waiting to do Hinata's fitting took a good, long look while she posed for her measurements.

_So beautiful._ The team leader thought longingly to himself. _Why couldn't I be the one you wanted? But at least I've grown up enough to admit that I'm not. I'll find Sasuke for you, no matter what it takes. But he'd damned well better appreciate what he's got waiting for him when I do, because if he hurts you like that again I'm going to kill him._

Then Hinata hesitantly emerged from the tent, and he nearly swallowed his tongue.

_Good gods, is that what she was hiding under that coat? She's as stacked as Anko, and I think she might be in even better shape than my girl clones. Hiding a body like that is a crime against all mankind. Wait, how the hell am I going to fit her armor without getting turned on enough to set off her seal?_

Apparently Hinata was having similar thoughts, because she blushed and covered herself as best she could with her slender arms. "Um, h-how are we going to do this?"

The clone looked away. "Do you mind if we go girl? I know it creeps Sakura out when I do that, but it would make it easier. A little."

Hinata bit her lip and looked away. "Um, I don't mind."

"Ok, then. Girl clones and chakra strings, so we don't have to actually touch anything. My god, you're beautiful. Wait, did I say that part out loud?" He babbled.

She giggled. "Thank you. Now focus. Think of…wrinkly old people."

The clones all chuckled as they transformed. "Chouji's used underwear," one suggested.

"Akamaru's butt," another replied.

"Where does Shino keep his insects?" Hinata added.

All three clones turned green. "Urp. Yeah, that did it. Let's get to work."

Two hours later the three kunoichi stood in one of the small clearings near the valley floor, looking each other over as Naruto charged their armor.

"How can something that covers your whole body be so revealing?" Sakura complained. Her armor consisted of a black body stocking that felt smooth as silk on the inside, and covered her from the neck down. The suit was actually two layers of specially treated fabric with a quarter-inch of some strange fibrous material between them, so it should have been hot and at least somewhat concealing. But the material molded itself against her like a second skin, and the way it bonded with her chakra let it transmit sensations as if it really were a part of her body. She was sure the fact that she could feel the slightest breeze blowing over the surface of the suit would be handy someday, but at the moment it felt an awful lot like being naked.

The chest area was a bit thicker than the rest of the suit, with a lens-shaped chakra storage crystal just below her breasts in front and a pair of small metal plates over her shoulder blades in the back. Over that she wore snug boots and gloves of the same material, and a tight harness with dozens of attachment points for equipment pouches and weapon sheaths. That part seemed practical enough, although she was a bit amused by the steel plates over the knuckles of her gloves. No one else had those.

The final piece was a headband of the same chakra-reactive material, which had a radio headset attached. She noted with interest that there was a lightning-nature elemental chakra conversion array on the inner surface, attached to a power line that seemed to connect to the radio.

"I'm guessing we don't have to worry about batteries for the radios?" She asked.

"Nope," Naruto answered proudly. "I added that one myself. Sergei and Vanner had all kinds of crazy ideas about fancy helmets with about a million gadgets in them, but the only thing we've actually got working right now is the radios. I remember TenTen telling me about how her team is always running out of those weird batteries their tactical sets use, so I worked out a way to power them directly from the suit's chakra reserve. They'll run as long as the suit has power, and the suit's powered by its wearer. So as long as you're not in total chakra exhaustion you've got instant communication with about a ten mile range."

"That's some nice seal work, boss," Anko commented as she stretched and twisted experimentally. "But if the suit runs off its wearer how come you need to charge them up?"

"Because the suit keeps its drain rate really low to make sure it doesn't wear you out or interfere with your techniques, so it would take about a week to completely charge it up that way. There's a technique for pushing chakra in faster, which is what I'm using, but these things can hold more than all three of you together could generate in one sitting. So hold still a minute while I get you charged up." Naruto put one hand on her suit's crystal and formed a seal with the other, and a faint blue aura sprang up around them both."

Hinata watched the proceedings with interest. At first she'd been mortified by the suits. Sakura was right about how revealing they were, and she'd always taken pains to conceal her figure as much as possible. But ever since she'd come out of the tent, Naruto kept looking at her! Oh, he tried not to stare, but she kept catching him at it when he thought she couldn't see. Silly man, as if she needed to strain her Byakugan just to see behind her.

She stepped back and did a few stretches as she waited for her turn, and three of the clones on sentry duty back beyond the tree line stopped to stare. She couldn't help but smile at that.

_Naruto thinks I'm pretty!_ She gloated silently to herself. _He's looking at me just as much as Anko, or even Sakura!_

She just knew people would stare at her in the suit, and she hated being stared at. But if it meant Naruto would look at her like that it was worth it. She listened to his explanation of how to channel chakra through the suit properly with half an ear, as most of her reveled in the attention.

The fact that Anko was looking too was a bit disturbing, but Hinata wasn't terribly surprised. The special jounin did have that kind of reputation, after all. In a way it was flattering, although she was glad Naruto was around to make sure the crazy woman didn't try anything…improper.

When Anko's suit was charged she immediately went bounding across the field, laughing like a lunatic while a Naruto clone followed along offering advice. Sakura opted to begin with a series of kata, slowly working her way up from simple forms to more complex ones as she adjusted the suit's effect on her chakra. Then it was Hinata's turn. Naruto put a hand on her storage crystal to start the power transfer, then slowly backed away once the process was started. Which was just as well, since it was hard to control her reactions when she was actually inside that massive aura of his.

Power flowed into the suit, and Hinata discovered that it was almost like having her own chakra reserves expanded. She was getting stronger, faster, a shell of tough but flexible armor forming between her and the outside world. She tugged at it, and found she could even draw a trickle of power from the suit back into her own chakra system, replenishing the energy she'd burned on the long run from Konoha. The suit's chakra was warm and friendly, almost like…

Wait a minute.

"Naruto, why doesn't the suit set off my seal?" She asked quietly.

He frowned in confusion. "Why would it? It isn't even human."

"But it's filled with your chakra, isn't it? Normally I can hardly stand within arm's reach of you. But the suit is filled with chakra, touching me…everywhere," she blushed. "Even mixing its chakra with mine. So why hasn't the seal activated?"

"Because it isn't really my chakra anymore by the time it starts circulating through the suit," Naruto explained. "Um, you know how everyone has a different chakra signature, right? Well, a suit has one too, and it's the storage crystal that creates it. When I feed power into the crystal it absorbs just the raw energy, without any of the emotional undertones and personal markers human chakra always has. Then when it feeds power to the suit it comes out with the crystal's signature. Once you've been wearing it a few days the crystal's signature will start changing to match your own, but it starts out with this really weird artificial one that doesn't look anything like a person."

"But you may be on to something," he continued thoughtfully. "Since the seal doesn't react to constructs, there might be a way to make one that can remove it safely." He trailed off, staring into space.

Hinata waited patiently, but after a moment he shook his head. "That's going to be tough. I'd have to imprint the whole removal process on a storage crystal somehow, or control it indirectly without letting it take on a human signature. I'll put some guys on it, but I'm not sure if I can actually get it to work or not."

--oOoOo--

The girls spent most of the afternoon getting acclimated to the suits, learning to use their less complicated techniques while taking advantage of the extra strength and speed their armor granted. Anko insisted on trying out the flight function, and Sakura found herself amazed once again at the level of seal mastery that had gone into the suits. In flight mode long oval wings of blue chakra were projected from those bits of metal on the back of the suit, catching the updraft produced by a tightly-focused wind jutsu and providing lift. Unfortunately it was a bit tricky to control. Anko managed to crash four times in a row before she got the hang of it, and finally pulled off a slow, wobbling flight across one of the larger clearings. Even then, her landing was only semi-successful. Not being adrenaline junkies with a regeneration bloodline, Sakura and Hinata both opted to finish mastering the armor's less complicated functions before trying anything that ambitious.

As the sun lowered towards the horizon Naruto called a halt to the afternoon's training, and the group gathered around a large patch of cleared ground where a team of clones were finishing up three large seal arrays. Each array formed a circle eight feet across with a large blank area in the middle, and the three designs were apparently identical.

"Ok, last important point about the suits for today," Naruto said as they gathered around the seals. "Getting in and out quickly. Obviously you don't want to go through that whole fitting process every time you want to armor up, but you also can't go around in full gear all the time. I went back and forth with the armorers a long time about this one, but we came up with a pretty cool solution. Anyone want to guess what it is?"

"Hmm. Animate the suit, and have it go soft and slip itself on or off?" Anko guessed.

"Nope. Sergei suggested that, but we couldn't make it work without weakening the suit. Anyone else?"

"Um. A storage seal?" Hinata offered.

Naruto grinned. "Getting closer. But you'd have to wear some kind of jewelry or something with the storage seals, and it could get lost or stolen. Sakura?"

The pinkette was studying the seals on the ground intently and muttering to herself. "That's a blood binding…eightfold chakra link, right…an essence imprint, and…a dismissal? But what…" Suddenly she gasped, "It's a summoning contract! We each imprint our essence on our armor with blood and chakra, and it becomes a summon that we can call up or dismiss at will. My god, Naruto, that's amazing!"

Naruto's grin widened considerably. "That's our resident genius. Yeah, you got it in one. Want to go first?"

--oOoOo--

Naruto briefed them all on the camp's traps and sentry positions over dinner, and led them all to their hidden shelters as darkness settled over the valley. From the outside each shelter was just a small hole in the hillside, hidden by nearby thickets and camouflaged with a leaf net over the entrance. Even skilled ninja weren't likely to find them without a long and arduous search.

On the inside each shelter was a good bit roomier than a normal two-man tent, with plenty of room to store spare gear and supplies. The inner surfaces had been fused into solid stone with an earth technique, and covered with seal arrays to hid the chakra signatures of anyone inside. Between the concealed positions and the clones on sentry duty above they'd be safer here than in their own beds back in Konoha.

But Sakura noted with suspicion that there were only two shelters, and Naruto was apparently planning to share one with Anko. An afternoon of training had been more than enough time to make the special jounin's exhibitionist tendencies clear, so she could hardly let that slide.

"Naruto, you'd better not be planning what I think you're planning," she said peevishly. "Only two shelters?"

Naruto just looked confused, but Anko took the opportunity to wrap her arms around him from behind and rest her head on his shoulder. "What's the matter pinkie?" She purred. "Afraid of the competition?"

"What? No!" Sakura sputtered. "But putting you two together is just asking for trouble."

"Oh, so you want me all to yourself?" Anko teased. "I don't know, pinkie. I'm game, but do you really think you can handle me?"

"That's not what I meant! God, what kind of sick pervert are you?" Sakura shouted, her face turning red.

"Oh, you have no idea, little girl," Anko shot back. "But you'd better watch it or you just might find out."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? No, on second thought I don't want to know. But you'd better keep your hands to yourself if you want to keep them in one piece." Sakura clenched her fist, but suddenly Naruto was between them.

"That's enough, you two. You're supposed to be teammates, in case you've forgotten, and on this team that actually means something." He frowned at them both.

Anko was instantly contrite. "Sorry, boss. You're right, I shouldn't be pushing her buttons like that. I'll try to control it better. Sorry, kid."

"Sakura?"

Naruto met her eyes calmly, and Sakura found her anger draining away. It was a stupid argument, and he did have a point. Why did she even care, anyway? "Sorry," she said shortly.

"Naruto?" Hinata asked hesitantly. "Are you and Anko…together?"

Naruto looked uncomfortable. Anko snorted. "I should be so lucky," she said, with a touch of bitterness. "I guess I should tell you both, since we're going to be in this together. I…go kinda nuts if I get into any kind of serious action, especially if there's any guys around. Bloodshed, foreplay, getting cut up or getting it on…it's all pretty much the same thing to me, thanks to this damned Heaven Seal. The Hokage calls it homicidal nymphomania. The boss here's in charge of making sure I don't get out of control."

"Hey, now, it's not just a job, Anko-chan," Naruto said gently as he slipped an arm around her waist. "We're friends too, remember? And teammates. I'm not just doing it because I have to."

Anko sighed. "Yeah, I know. I just don't want Hinata thinking I'm gonna steal you away or something. I know better than that."

Hinata frowned at her. "Anko-san, if you truly believe that you insult both yourself and Naruto. But I think you'll come to know better, and I…I'm glad you can give….N-Naruto what I c-can't." She blinked back tears, and took a deep breath to calm herself.

Sakura frowned in confusion as she looked back and forth between Naruto and the other two kunoichi. "Hinata, what are you talking about?" She finally asked.

The shy girl hung her head. "All unmarried Hyuuga bear a chastity seal. The sensitivity is set to extreme levels to prevent tampering, so even…holding hands or..k-kissing is impossible," she replied. "I can't even…and father would never…he despises Naruto," she choked back a sob.

Sakura stared at the younger girl with wide eyes. "Oh, Hinata. I had no idea. But…you could leave?" She offered weakly. "There's got to be someone who could remove…"

Hinata silently lifted her headband to reveal the Caged Bird seal on her forehead.

"Hinata, I promised you I'd find a way to set you free, and I meant it," Naruto said seriously. "It isn't going to be forever."

"I know," she replied. "I believe you, Naruto. But it could take years, and…anything could happen. I can't ask you to wait. So…just, be happy, Naruto."

Naruto frowned, but Anko interrupted his reply with a hand on his shoulder. "You really mean that, don't you?" She asked. Hinata nodded. "Damn. You're a better woman than I am, Hinata. Um, boss, do you think you could give us some time to talk?"

He sighed. "Sure. But I don't want either of you giving up hope like that, ok? You're both incredible, beautiful kunoichi, and you're important to me. I don't care what it takes, I'm going to make sure you can both have real futures. Just give me a little time to work on it, ok?"

They both nodded and agreed, and he reluctantly stayed behind as they retreated to one of the shelters. He watched them go for a moment, then shook his head and turned towards the surrounding woods.

Leaving a rather stunned Sakura behind.

"Am I the only person on this team who doesn't have a tragic past and a doubtful future?" She asked the darkness plaintively. "Jeeze, I'm a medic-nin, not a psychiatrist."

--oOoOo--

Anko swept the shelter for bugs and put a security seal over the entrance. Hinata flashed her Byakugan at full strength for a moment, checking not just the artificial cave but everything within a hundred yards. Then the two kunoichi turned to face each other, and paused nervously.

"I'll start," Anko said after a moment. "I'm no good at that subtle crap so I'll get straight to the point. You'd really tell your dad to fuck off and run away with stud-boy if he couldn't make your head explode at will?"

Hinata nodded. "Gladly. But he can, and there's nothing Naruto can do. Even if he could remove the seals, doing so would be a capital crime. If the Hokage let him get away with it half the clans in Konoha would rebel."

Anko snorted. "Yeah, got to love all those clan autonomy laws. No offense, but we should have broken the clans and unified Konoha years ago."

"None taken," Hinata reassured her. Then her eyes narrowed. "You want him as well. Don't push him away."

"Sweetie, I'm psychotic, not stupid. I'll take whatever I can get. But I'm as common as crap and crazy to boot, and you know as well as I do he's probably going to be the next Hokage. He'll need a wife from a major clan for that, and no lady is going to put up with someone like me hanging around playing mistress."

"I would," Hinata corrected sharply. "Any sensible clan would be honored to have you as a retainer."

"You would?" Anko asked, startled. "I…thanks. Well, if I wasn't before I'm definitely rooting for you now. You know, I bet the boss and Jiraiya can figure out a way to get those seals off you. Then we just stage a little coup, kill off the old men and put you in charge of the Hyuuga, and as long as you don't complain to the Hokage there's no problem. Right?"

Hinata shook her head. "Hanabi is the heir now, and I'm not going to murder my little sister to take over the clan. Besides which, the Hyuuga have too many jounin for that. They'd resist long enough for allies to arrive, and we'd end up starting a civil war. No, the best I can hope for is to somehow fake my death and disappear."

"That sucks." Anko frowned in thought for a moment. "Wait, I get it now. You want someone around to make sure pinkie doesn't get her hooks in him after you're gone."

Hinata looked away. "I just want him to be happy."

--oOoOo--

For three days the newly-minted team trained intensively together, mixing mock missions, group melees and simple sparring matches to give all three kunoichi the chance to get fully acclimated to fighting in their armor. Naruto even staged mock ambushes at odd hours, until they were all skilled enough to summon their armor with a thought. Sakura was less than pleased with the way it shredded any clothing they might be wearing at the time, but the other two hardly cared.

On the fourth Naruto gathered the group after their morning warm-up and announced that it was time for something different. "I think you're all getting the hang of the suits, so it's time to move on. Just remember, don't get lazy and start relying on those force fields like the guys we fought up in Snow Country did. The enemies we're up against are going to have jutsu that can punch through it if you stand still and let them hit you, so don't give them the chance."

"Now, for the next few days I want to work on group tactics in the mornings, and then do individual jutsu training in the afternoons. We'll try not to blow off too much chakra in the morning sessions, but if you get low just leech off your suit. I'll power it back up over lunch, so you'll be at full strength for the afternoon. Questions?"

"How is this tactics training different than what we've been doing?" Sakura asked.

Naruto grinned. "The big difference is that we're all going to fight on the same side. I'll make clones to be our opponents, and we'll work on figuring out how to use all our new tools and techniques as we get up to speed on them. And before you ask, today we're going to work on a really important new tool that I think you'll all find pretty handy. Clones."

Anko cocked her head. "Uh, boss? I'll admit you could teach me a few things about Shadow Clone, but I don't think the kids have enough chakra for that kind of thing."

"Not your clones. Mine. Look, most of you've seen me call up hundreds of clones at once, and you know I can run them all day. Have you wondered why I even need a team?"

All three kunoichi looked puzzled. "Beats me," Anko admitted cheerfully. "If you've got as much in reserve as I think you could take down a whole Hidden Village by yourself."

Naruto chuckled. "I doubt it. Don't forget they've got a lot of hidden reserves too. But no, I really do need a team for the kind of stuff we're supposed to do, and the reason has to do with the limitations of clone techniques. Most people never figure this out, because they can only make one or two clones anyway. But Anko, have you ever noticed that your shadow clones aren't quite as good as you are?"

The special jounin considered the question. "Hmm. Usually I can't tell the difference, but yeah, if I'm in too much of a hurry sometimes they seem a little flaky."

"Exactly. A shadow clone is supposed to be a perfect copy of you, but it's hard to actually copy everything. If you only make one or two at a time it's easy to copy all your combat skills, and that's all that matters in a fight. But if I make twenty clones at once they're each going to know maybe half my techniques, and they're a little on the slow side mentally. By the time we get up into the hundreds I'm making idiots with one good technique each, which means they need a lot of supervision. I usually have to balance how good my clones are against how many I need and how much time I have to make them, which means they're usually kind of specialized and not all that smart. Since I can only give orders to so many guys at one that's a big limitation, so my plan is for each of you to have your own clone team to command whenever we've got a serious fight going on."

That got interested looks all around.

"Obviously that means you'll need to know what clone techniques I've got," he went on, "and a lot about my other techniques as well. But I've got some pretty good tricks for turning out groups of clones with exactly the skills I want them to have, so you should also be thinking about what kind of team would best suit you. I can make sneaky clones, close combat experts, long-range attackers, you name it. Once you get that worked out I'll make a jutsu for each of you that makes exactly the team you want, so I can spam a bunch of them in a hurry if I need to."

"Now, you all know about Shadow Clone, so I won't bore you with that. But for taijutsu I actually use Wind Clone most of the time. Wind clones aren't too smart, but they're really fast and they have almost all of my taijutsu skill. I can also set them up with a couple of ninjutsu abilities, which makes up for them being a little fragile…"

--oOoOo--

By the end of the first week the team's tactics were coming together, but Hinata and Sakura were both stumbling to bed in an exhausted daze every night. Hinata had learned the Hiding Mist technique easily, and Water Clone wasn't much harder. But jyuuken was already an energy-intensive combat art, and maintaining a mist field and several clones while fighting with it taxed her chakra reserves severely. The Syrup Capture Field she'd begun working on would be even worse, and she was dreading the day when she'd have to try to combine the three.

Sakura was even worse off. After her training with Tsunade she'd thought she was in great shape, but training with Anko and Hinata soon disabused her of that notion. Both kunoichi were just insanely fit, and Sakura constantly found herself pushed to her limits trying to keep up with them. By the end of each day she ached from head to toe in a way she hadn't since her first days of medic-nin training.

Anko was in similar straits, if for a different reason. She'd talked Naruto into keeping her on a chakra link so she could experiment with a more energy-intensive approach to combat than her usual style, and the results were devastating. But she'd quickly discovered that just because the link kept her full of chakra didn't mean she could throw high-level techniques forever. After a hard day of training her tenketsu burned with a type of fatigue she'd never encountered before, and her control deteriorated until she could barely manage a Fire Breath without burning herself.

Naruto, on the other hand, never showed the slightest sign of fatigue.

"God, how do you do it?" Anko groaned one night as she settled beside the campfire. Sakura and Hinata were sprawled limply on the ground next to her, while Naruto cheerfully served the evening meal. Some kind of noodle dish tonight, she noted absently, but at least it wasn't ramen.

"Do what?" He asked curiously. "The cooking? After a few years on the road you either learn or starve."

"Stamina freak," Sakura grumbled as she accepted her bowl. "He's just made of iron, Anko. I remember this one time when we were genin, and we kept getting attacked by genjutsu users and couldn't figure out where they were hiding. So we just went to ground, and he kept doing big Mass Shadow Clones to keep them busy, for like four hours. They were killing his clones with these dinky little D-rank techniques, probably burning a hundred times less chakra than he was, but they still ran out long before he did. Finally they got so tired their masking slipped, and we took them out."

Anko laughed around a mouthful of food. "Yeah, that sounds like him. You should have seen him fighting Itachi and that fish guy, Kisame. He must have thrown a couple hundred A-rank attack jutsu, and he still looked like he could go all day. Or all night," She added slyly.

"What was it like?" Hinata asked. "The fight, I mean."

"Oh, it was something else. Let me tell you…"

Anko's enthusiastic retelling of the fight lasted most of the meal, complete with sound effects and acting out of crucial scenes. But as she finally wound down she winced, and put a hand to her back. "Ow. Damn it, why can't regeneration fix post-training achiness too? Hey, stud, how about a little massage?"

"Hedonist," Naruto chuckled. "Sure, no problem. Come on back to the shelter and I'll see what I can do."

"But the fire's over here," Anko complained. "Besides, it's not like I've got anything the girls haven't seen before."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Exhibitionist too," she complained. "In that case, I'm off to bed. Coming, Hinata?"

"Bath first, for me," Hinata replied, rising to leave with considerably less difficulty than Sakura was facing. "Don't wait up."

"Hmpf." The pinkette slowly struggled to her feet, and managed a few of steps before she had to stop to lean on a tree for a moment. She looked thoughtfully back to the fireside, where Anko had stripped to the waist and was settling down on a large towel Naruto had produced from somewhere. Was he really any good at that?

Anko's heartfelt groan as he went to work on her back answered that question.

She hesitated, her aching muscles demanding that she go back and ask for a massage of her own. But then she remembered that moment in the Hokage's office. All he'd had to do was hug her, and she'd lost all control of herself. Judging from the way Anko was melting into a euphoric puddle a massage would be much worse.

_No, if I let him do that there's no telling where it might lead. I promised myself I'd be strong and wait for Sasuke, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to give up my dream just because Naruto grew up and got sexy. Even if I am feeling jealous of Anko right now, damn it. Deep breath, Sakura. You can do it. Just…stay away from him when stuff like this is going on. Right._

She turned away, and limped painfully off to bed.

--oOoOo--

The daimyo of Demon Country woke suddenly to find himself lying on a metal table in a cold, windowless room. A bank of bright lights on the ceiling nearly blinded him, and he wondered for a moment if this was an operating theater. But he wasn't scheduled for any medical procedures, was he?

A face loomed out of the light. "Ah, good, you're awake. Time to begin."

The daimyo tried to speak, to ask what was happening, but found that he was gagged. He tried to reach up and remove it, but his wrists and ankles were bound to the table.

"Such a static, inelegant art," another voice commented. "But I suppose it will be useful in this case. How long with this take, Sasori?"

"Puppet crafting is a delicate process, Deidara," the first voice replied. "It can't be rushed, or the piece is ruined. Give me three days, and he should be ready."

"What a long, drawn-out opening. Ah well, the rest of the piece will have enough drama to make up for it. Demonic armies, genocide, the fate of the world, and some truly massive explosions – I like this one so much better than our original plan."

The daimyo caught a glimpse of the second man, A tall blonde in a dark robe, with…mouths in the palms of his hands?! He tried to shout, and struggled against his bonds. But the padded leather straps were unyielding.

Sasori chuckled grimly. "Struggle all you want, old man. It won't change anything. In three days you'll dance to my will, and the plan can begin. Got that, Moryo?"

"Indeed," came a third voice, from the shadows at the edge of the room. "I'll leave you to your work, then. In four days I make my move. Don't disappoint me."

There was a creak of hinges, and the sound of a door closing. Sasori and Deidera exchanged an amused look.

Deidera shook his head. "What an idiot. He actually thinks his little toy god can destroy the world, doesn't he?"

Sasori shrugged. "He'll make a good distraction."

"A useful idiot, yes, but an idiot all the same. Ah well, it's time for me to be off as well. Have fun."

Deidera breezed out of the room. Sasori shook his head and muttered something unintelligible as he rummaged among his tools. Then he bent over the daimyo's helpless form again, but this time he held a curiously shaped blade in one hand.

"It's just you and me now, old man," Sasori said seriously. "I'm afraid you won't make much of a puppet, with your undeveloped chakra and withered old body. But I promise I'll do the best I can."

Then he began to cut.


	7. Opening Moves

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

**Author's Note:** Check out my blog (link in my profile), for rant's, Q&A, release plans and other assorted info related to my stories.

* * *

News of Tsunade's new personal assistant had generated some consternation among Konoha's more conservative inhabitants, but there was little they could do about it. Even in Konoha the Hokage had complete control over the selection of her personal staff, and criticizing her appointments too bluntly could be taken as an insult to the Hokage herself. So those who were displeased by Naruto's appointment were limited to veiled hostility and relatively restrained complaints, at least in public. Compared to the open hatred and occasional violence of his childhood Naruto found their reactions almost friendly.

Any doubts Tsunade herself may have had about the young jinchuuriki's ability to fill in for Shizune were quickly laid to rest. While he might not have her assistant's deft hand at dealing with the bureaucracy, he made up for it with a combination of personal charm, dogged determination and frequent late nights at the office. By the end of his first week he was handling half of Shizune's previous duties easily, and his ability to be in a dozen places at once (with instant communication, no less) proved so useful she wondered how she'd ever gotten by without him.

The sight of Shizune surrounded by a dozen eager young kunoichi every afternoon brought a nostalgic smile to Tsunade's face, and she wished she had time to teach more classes herself. But a Hokage's work was never done, and she didn't have Naruto's freakish immunity to the psychic shock that trying to integrate too many shadow clone memories usually caused. Aside from the occasional emergency project her days had only twenty-four hours in them, and no matter how much she delegated there was always something else that required her personal attention.

Like Akatsuki.

She sighed as she accepted Jiraiya's latest report, skimming the terse paragraphs with a practiced eye. "This just keeps getting worse, doesn't it? First Itachi and Kisame, then that Deidara character, and now you're telling me Kakuza is real."

"I'm afraid so," Jiraiya replied. "I'm not sure how many of the stories about the 'immortal zombie ninja' are true, but he's definitely no pushover and I've got solid confirmation that he's working with Akatsuki."

"Great." She paused to retrieve a bottle of sake and a pair of saucers from one of the secret compartments in her desk, and offered one to Jiraiya. "How the hell are we going to stop these jokers without getting half our ninja killed in the process?"

"It isn't going to be easy," Jiraiya said seriously. "Especially considering that the members we don't know about are probably the most dangerous ones. Even jounin are going to have a high casualty rate against opponents like these, let alone chuunin. Although, we should keep in mind that their targets aren't exactly pushovers either."

"That's what I said," Naruto interjected from the doorway. "Their villages might not be willing to work together, but I think it's worth contacting the other jinchuuriki directly."

Tsunade frowned. "If the other villages decide we're trying to recruit them they could easily take it as an act of war. We can't afford that."

"Neither can they," Naruto pointed out. "Besides, I wasn't planning to announce it to the world or anything. I just want to meet with each of them, let them know what's going on, and offer to work together to stop these guys. If even a couple of them agree it could make a big difference."

"And if just one of them reports the meeting we've got an international incident on our hands," Tsunade retorted. "No, it's too risky. Not until Akatsuki actually makes their move, and maybe not then."

"By then we'll have lost the initiative, and probably some potential allies too," Jiraiya countered. "We should at least try to locate the other jinchuuriki, and figure out which ones might be open to an approach."

"Fine," Tsunade conceded. "Take a look at our intel on them, and come up with a plan. If you can find a good enough approach you might talk me into it. But no contacting anyone on your own, got it?"

--oOoOo--

In an innocuous-seeming workshop in northern Wind Country a blonde man in a black-and-red Akatsuki robe hummed cheerfully as he carved a life-sized statue of himself from explosive clay. Under combat conditions his Clay Clone technique produced a decidedly inferior copy, much like an Earth Clone aside from its ability to explode on command. But using it on a specially-prepared statue of real explosive clay? Ah, that was another story.

"Two can play the numbers game, yeah. You make all the clones you want, kid. I don't care how much chakra you've got, you'll never be able to compete with my art!"

Finally satisfied with his latest creation, Deidara primed it with a hefty dose of chakra and applied the activation seal on it's forehead. Then he sealed it into a storage scroll, which joined a growing pile on one of the work tables by the window.

"Let's see now, how many self-planting C2 mines can I fit in one scroll? A few hundred? Yeah, that sounds about right."

--oOoOo--

Anko hated mornings. Oh, she had the old trick of waking instantly at the first sign of danger down pat, thanks to some especially brutal training at the hands of her old sensei. But given the chance she'd far prefer to sleep the morning away, and perhaps crawl out of bed around the crack of noon to seek caffeine and food.

Ten days of constantly pushing herself past her limits in training didn't exactly discourage her slothful tendencies, and Naruto actually had to shake her twice before one eye reluctantly opened.

"Five more minutes?" She mumbled plaintively.

Naruto chuckled. "Rest day today. The girls are about to crack, so I'm just going to do some briefings and organizational stuff."

"'mkay." The eye closed. "Seeya t'morrow."

"Oh, you might not want to sleep the whole day." He slipped under the blanket with her, and ran one chakra-charged finger slowly down her spine. Anko shivered, and her eyes opened.

"Oooh, that's nice," she breathed, suddenly more awake than she'd expected to feel for hours. "But after last night I thought you'd be done for awhile."

"This is for you, Anko-chan," he replied. "I didn't mention it at the time because we were a little busy, but you remember the first time I tried to make you pass out from pleasure? Guess what happened about halfway through."

"Um, orgasm number four hundred and twenty?" Anko guessed. "I give up. What?"

Naruto touched the seal that had faded into visibility on her shoulder. "This thing started to unfold."

Anko froze. "What?"

"The outer symbol ring unfolded. That's why I got distracted for a second. It was perfectly readable, so I made a clone to copy it."

"That's never happened before. Wait, does that mean…" She couldn't finish the sentence. After so many failed attempts, she'd long since given up any hope of removing the damned thing.

"Not yet, but it was a big step. I went over what I'd learned with Jiraiya, and we came up with a couple of ways to pry the outer ring loose. But he says the thing has at least eight layers, probably more, and we need to know what's in the rest of them to come up with a complete counter-technique. So I thought, if you're interested, that we could spend the day seeing if we can make the same thing happen again only more so."

Anko stared at him in shock for a long moment. Then she pinned him to the bedroll and planted a fierce kiss on his lips.

"Yes! Hell, yes!" She growled. "I'd do anything to get this damned seal off me. What do I have to do?"

He slipped his arms around her with a grin. "Just lie back and enjoy yourself, mostly. The seal taps into your most violent emotions, so I'm pretty sure being relaxed and blissed-out is what it was reacting to last time. Only I'm not sure if the key to unfolding the rest of it is making things more intense, or just making it last longer, so we might have to experiment…"

"I think I can stand being the subject for that kind of experiment," Anko declared dryly. "You know, if you keep spoiling me like this I'm gonna be a hopeless Naruto addict in no time."

"I can live with that," he replied.

--oOoOo--

Meanwhile, another clone was discussing plans with Sakura and Hinata over breakfast.

"…so we'll take it easy today to give you both a chance to recover. We've got a bunch of paperwork and procedural stuff we need to deal with this morning anyway. If you're up to it we'll do a little light practice this afternoon, but nothing too strenuous," he explained.

"Thank god!" Sakura exclaimed. "I'm so fried an academy student could beat me. I swear, I'm surprised I haven't passed out in the middle of a sparring match yet."

Naruto chuckled, and Hinata nodded her agreement. "Yes. These new jutsu will be very useful, but learning so many at once is…trying. Will Anko be joining us?"

"Nah, I've got a side project I'm working on with her today. Which actually brings me to the first thing we need to cover." Naruto unsealed a storage scroll with brisk efficiency, revealing a stack of…personnel files? Hinata raised an eyebrow as she read the names on the folders, and a moment later Sakura caught it as well.

"Wait, those are our files!" She observed.

"Exactly. Like it or not we're a high-profile target now, so we've got to worry a lot more about enemy infiltration and manipulation than any regular squad. To me that means we can't afford to have a lot of secrets from each other, and we also need to have a good idea what the different factions in Konoha do and don't know about us. These are copies of the confidential files for everyone on the team, which is what anyone who wants to know more about us is going to look at first. So today we read our files, and we deal with any questions that come up as part of that."

"Isn't there a rule against reading our own files?" Sakura asked cautiously. "I'm sure I remember that from somewhere."

"Bah!" Naruto waved the objection away. "Anyone who let's that stop them has no business being in covert ops. Half of ANBU has done this, and some of them even tamper with their own records from what I've heard. Just don't go around telling people about it, and no one will care."

Naruto passed around the folders, handing each girl her own first. "Now, there are two big surprises in here I want to get out in the open right away. The first one has to do with Anko, and that cursed seal she has. You see, she was Orochimaru's apprentice back before he left the village. He took her with him when he left, and used her as an experimental subject when he was developing his Heaven Seal. Yeah, Sakura, it's the same one he put on Sasuke. But Anko's is an early prototype that doesn't work quite right, which is why it causes that, um, problem we talked about the other night."

Sakura worked through the dates in her head, and her eyes widened. "She's been resisting it for that long?'

"Yeah," Naruto nodded. "I know she's a little odd, but she's a pretty amazing person in her own way. Anyway, Jiraiya and Tsunade were never able to remove the seal, but we've recently come into some new information that may help. It looks like we've found a flaw we can use to decrypt her seal, which would be the first step in making a removal technique. But it could be weeks before we know anything for sure about that, so obviously it's going to be a touchy subject for her."

"Of course," Hinata commented sympathetically. "It would be horrible to get her hopes up again and then fail."

Sakura's mind was already headed in a different direction. "What are the odds that a cure would work for Sasuke?"

"I'm not sure," Naruto answered tightly. "It depends on how much the snake bastard has changed the design since he did hers. But believe me, I'll let you know as soon as we find out anything."

"Thank you," Sakura sighed gratefully. "It's good to have a reason to hope, at least. So, um, you said two things. What's the other?"

"Well, it's about me." Naruto paused, and looked back and forth between his companions uncertainly. "I, um…well…damn, this is hard. I've never actually told anyone before."

"If it helps, I already know," Hinata said suddenly. The other two stared at her, and she bowed her head. "I'm sorry, N-Naruto. I see a lot of things I technically shouldn't know about."

"How long?" He asked woodenly.

"Since I was…eight? Yes, about that. When my eyes grew strong enough to see inside of sealed spaces. I was frightened at first, but then father…arranged, rather artfully, for me to learn the details. To understand what I was seeing. He was displeased when I told him the villagers should be thanking you."

"Oh. Um, wow. I need a minute to process that," Naruto said shakily. "So all this time I've been wondering how you'd react, and you already knew."

"Well, I still don't," Sakura complained. "What are you two talking about?"

Naruto sighed, and kicked a clod of dirt. "The reason granny's so worried about Akatsuki. Why they're going to be coming after us sooner or later, and my team is bound to be in the thick of it. Because…I'm a jinchuuriki."

Sakura gasped. "What? But…well, that would explain a few things. But which bijuu…" She stopped, and her eyes widened. "The Kyuubi?"

"Yeah," Naruto confirmed. "Most of the older villagers know, which is why they act like they do around me. They mostly don't tell their kids because it's an S-rank secret, so talking about it is a capital offense. But I'm authorized to tell people I think need to know, and that definitely includes my teammates."

"Does Sasuke know?" Sakura asked softly.

"I never told him, but I'm pretty sure he figured it out. I'm sorry, Sakura, I should have told both of you. But I was always too afraid to find out how you'd react." He hung his head.

She put her hand on his. "It's ok, Naruto. I know we didn't exactly make it easy for you to open up. To be honest, I'm not sure what I would have done if you'd told me before the chuunin exam." She paused thoughtfully for a moment. "So, Gaara had that sand thing, and the monster form. What about you? Wait, is that what that red chakra is?"

"Yeah," he said shakily. "I don't use it much, because the stuff's incredibly poisonous. The only reason I can survive it is that I've also got a bloodline ability that makes me regenerate. Really I try not to call on the Kyuubi for anything, because I don't want to risk letting it get loose."

He hesitated, and asked, "So, you're not going to freak out?"

She snorted. "Please. Give me a little credit, dummy. I think I've known you long enough to be sure you're not being possessed by a demon god."

--oOoOo--

Two hundred miles to the west, a pair of Naruto's clones surveyed the results of their most recent jutsu research with satisfaction. The setting sun shone down on a tract of wooded hill country dotted with tiny lakes, surrounded by miles of wilderness in every direction. Dozens of trails of destruction cut across the valley, some narrow and meandering, others wide and relatively straight.

"I think we've got the control problem fixed," one clone observed. "It's never going to be fast enough to hit an alert opponent, but it'll work great against an army or a guy who's hunkered down behind some 'ultimate defense'.

The other one chuckled. "I can't wait to see Kisame's face when we use it on one of his instant lakes. Or a bijuu, it would be good for that too."

"Yeah. Ok, that's another item down. Now, what can we do about that guy with the animated explosives?"

--oOoOo--

Shion examined the official message thoughtfully. Her dreams had been uneasy recently, plagued by a sense of foreboding that she could find no explanation for. At first she'd been concerned that Moryo, the demon lord her line was fated to oppose, was somehow threatening to break free again. But there was no word of a disturbance at either of the sealed prisons that kept the demon's body and soul in eternal separation.

Now this. A letter from the daimyo warning that the ninja of Konoha were planning to replace her with a clone, and spirit her away to Fire Country to use in some demented breeding project meant to unite her powers with the Hyuuga bloodline. Well, that was the sort of thing ninja did for power, which was one reason they were so distrusted by most nobles. But Konoha had a hard-won reputation for being more ethical than that, going back to their exile of Orochimaru nearly twenty years ago. Besides, the current Hokage was a woman. It just didn't add up.

Her serene expression was touched by the faintest hint of a frown.

Most likely the daimyo wanted her at court for some reason, though she had no idea why. Usually she avoided the capital and its population of scheming nobles like the snake pit it was, using her status as High Priestess to decline social invitations with bland excuses about holy days and purification rituals. But a proclamation ordering her into the protective custody of the daimyo's personal guard was a different matter entirely.

Besides, what if it turned out to be true after all? You can never be sure of anything where ninja are concerned…

"Very well," she said finally. "Captain, prepare a company of the Shrine Guard for travel. We leave for the capital tomorrow."

"Yes, Shion-sama!" Taruho replied.

Shion allowed a hint of a smile to reach her face. If she was forced to visit the capital, she could at least make sure she had loyal retainers around her at all times. Not only was she entitled to such an escort, but custom dictated that any lord who hosted one of her rare visits was obligated to feed and house them during her stay. Whatever the daimyo's scheme might be, the expense should at least persuade him not to keep her in the capital any longer than necessary.

--oOoOo--

"Contact," the snake looped around Anko's neck whispered. "She'll be under us in less than a minute."

Anko chuckled quietly. "Age and treachery beats youth and talent, kids. Ok, we'll light'er up as she passes."

The snake was a henged Naruto clone, of course. A few days ago she'd hit on the idea of having her scout team henge into innocuous woodland animals, and relay their observations back via a clone hidden on her person. So far her opponents hadn't caught on, which gave her a devastating advantage in the three-way skirmishing exercises she'd been doing with Sakura and Hinata every afternoon.

A moment later one of Anko's shadow clones ran under the branch she was perched on, with Sakura in hot pursuit. Anko dropped her cloaking genjutsu as the pinkette passed under her, shifting her suit from stealth mode to combat mode as she formed the seals for a Fire Dragon. Snake-Naruto's Typhoon Dragon was perfectly synced with her attack, producing a massive fireball that engulfed not only their target but every point within sight where she could have tried to escape with a replacement technique. Anko's force field formed just in time to protect her from the blast.

She picked up a hint of what might have been a body flicker as the attack struck, and followed the trace instantly. Smoke and flames obscured the area, but the chakra signature of an active force field would be hard to miss at close range. She scanned the area intently, hoping to pick out her opponent before she was spotted in turn. There was definitely someone nearby, but it was hard to pin down where.

_Damn_, she thought. _Did she get a cloaking genjutsu up? Fire's dying down, I'd better go stealth again or she'll spot me._

Dropping silently onto another branch, she pulled her cloak around her as her force field powered down. The cloaks were new, only a couple of days old, but already all three kunoichi on Team Orange swore by them. Normally they were black, with orange flames along the bottom, but in stealth mode they changed color to blend in perfectly with their surroundings.

_Ok, Pinky's in stealth mode too, but she never stays still for long. She'll probably try to sneak away before this smoke clears, so I'll just hit her again when she gives away her position…_

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms."

The whisper came from right behind her, but it was already too late to react. With its force field active her chakra armor made her practically immune to jyuuken attacks, but with that defense turned off the chakra-conductive material offered no protection at all. Anko gasped as a flurry of strikes sealed most of her tenketsu, and she lost control of both her chakra and her limbs.

"Gurk!" She pitched forward, and would have fallen right off the limb if Hinata hadn't caught her with one hand. The other flashed out to strike snake-Naruto, dispelling him and neatly removing Anko's last ally on the scene.

"I win," the Hyuuga girl announced with a hint of pride.

"Crap!" Anko complained. "I guess you got me. Was that really Sakura, or you under a henge?"

"Me. I got to Sakura first, and then set myself up for your scouts to find me."

"Well, damn. I guess I should have known better than to think I was fooling you, girl." Anko swayed awkwardly, and looped an arm around Hinata's shoulders for support. "Help me back to camp?"

Hinata blushed slightly. "I-if you can stop staring at my chest."

"Oh, come on. You're as hot as I am and you just kicked my ass. Do you have any idea how juiced up that gets me?"

The blush brightened. "Anko! I'm not…um…"

"I know, I know, you think you're straight." Anko sighed theatrically. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna try anything dumb. Now, once the boss gets that seal off you I might just have to try and change your mind…"

As Hinata stammered and tried to frame a reply a small bird landed on a nearby branch, and transformed into a Naruto clad in chakra armor. He eyed Anko and frowned.

"Anko, are you harassing Hinata again?"

"Hey, I'm just being friendly!" Anko protested. "Besides, I can't stand on my own right now."

Naruto sighed. "Yeah. Right. Anyway, if you two can make it over to the range I've got some new toys for you."

He led the two into the woods to a target range his clones had set up, in one of the new clearings left by their recent live-fire exercises. Sakura was already there, leaning against a tree watching a crew of clones smooth out craters and pin up fresh targets.

"Hey, everyone." She called as they entered the clearing. "I see you managed to lose this one, Anko."

The special jounin pouted. "Hey, so did you! Maybe next time we should team up on sneaky girl here."

Sakura shrugged. "Nah, you're just trying to sucker me into turning my back on you. So, Naruto, what have you got for us today? Some kind of new ranged weapon, I take it?"

"More like a new twist on some old tricks," Naruto replied, pulling a handful of shuriken from his weapon pouch. "Take a look at these."

He handed one over to each of his teammates, and they examined them curiously. There were seals etched into both sides of the weapon, but their purpose wasn't immediately clear.

"Hmm. A storage seal on one side, and an explosive seal on the other?" Sakura frowned in thought. "Both with chakra primers, but there's another symbol I don't recognize."

"It's an impact trigger," Naruto explained. "A cute idea some seal masters up in Stone came up with. The way this works is you prime it just like an exploding tag, but after that it goes of instantly when it hits something instead of having to burn down for a few seconds. Since the seals are engraved on the metal the blast actually blows the shuriken apart, so you get flying bits of steel going everywhere. Plus when the storage seal breaks that lets out the poison inside, so the fragments and smoke are all toxic too."

Anko eyed her shuriken speculatively. "Hmm. The fast trigger would make it a lot harder to get away from with a replacement technique, and it sounds like parrying it could set it off too. Yeah, even someone tough could get nailed by that."

"What kind of poison is it?" Sakura asked with interest. "Most toxins wouldn't survive the heat of the explosion."

Naruto grinned. "It's a secret recipe Mist uses called Formula Fifteen. Survives the explosion and knocks out a normal target in seconds, but it takes a few minutes to kill them and there's a reliable antidote we can carry. It also breaks down after about ten minutes of exposure to air, so we don't have to worry about civilians poking around a battlefield after we leave and getting poisoned."

Sakura eyed him speculatively. "I don't suppose you know how to make any of their other special formulas? Tsunade-sensei told me they have some amazing stuff, but they're so paranoid about the recipes that even she didn't have most of them."

"Well, if I can keep my op going for a few more months maybe I can help with that, but right now all I'm learning are their poisons. Anyway, these things take some work to make, so don't go too crazy with them. I've got a dozen here so you can get used to them, and then you can decide how many you want to actually carry on missions."

Sakura eyed the weapons dubiously. "I don't know, Naruto. It sounds effective, but using poisoned weapons is dangerous enough when they aren't designed to explode. I'm not so sure this is worth the risk."

Hinata flicked her shuriken downrange with a practiced motion, and it sailed across a hundred yards of broken terrain to slam dead-center into a paper target pinned to one of the broken tree trunks. It exploded instantly, blasting the wood into fragments and filling an area twenty yards across with ominous purple smoke. She left her Byakugan active until the last of the resulting fragments settled to earth, and smiled fiercely.

"I'll take Sakura's share if she doesn't want them," the shy girl stated. "Only, can you add smoke powder as well?"

Anko cackled gleefully. "Oh, hell yeah! Make mine white phosphorous and napalm, cause there's no such thing as too much firepower!"

--oOoOo--

The Prancing Kitten was one of Fire Country's more colorful entertainment establishments. At first glance it could easily be mistaken for another of the hot spring resorts that dotted the countryside, made prosperous by its location just off the main road between Konoha and the capital. The acres of immaculately kept gardens and semi-private guest houses marked it as the sort of upscale establishment that only the wealthy could afford to patronize, while the understated elegance of the décor proclaimed the good taste (and likely nobility) of the proprietor.

Less obvious was the fact that the startlingly attractive female staff was 'full service', providing everything from companionship for lonely travelers to exotic entertainments for private parties. Those in the know rated the Kitten one of the top ten establishments in the elemental countries, and one of the few whose security and discretion were dependable enough to attract foreign dignitaries and nobles of the court. The staff of the Kitten never gossiped, and in the seventy years since its founding no client had ever been assassinated on the premises.

The fact that most of the staff were members of a secret kunoichi clan was even less well known, but Jiraiya had uncovered their existence and negotiated an alliance with them decades ago. Needless to say, it was one of his favorite stops in Fire Country.

Naruto was escorted to the Sannin's room by a willowy raven-haired beauty of around his own age, who somehow managed to make it clear that she'd be happy to introduce him to the resort's more intimate pleasures without ever directly mentioning the topic. He scratched his head nervously as the girl slid the door of the meeting room closed, and discretely applied a privacy jutsu.

"Man, why does this place always make me feel like a side of beef in a cage full of tigers?" He asked nervously.

Jiraiya, who was already sitting at the low table in the center of the room, chuckled and offered him a drink. "It's your own fault, Naruto," he advised. "The girls aren't used to visitors who don't sample the goods, and they know you're my apprentice. Of course they're curious. You should spend a weekend here enjoying yourself sometime."

"What, so I can be just another client to them?" Naruto snorted. "No thanks, old man. Besides, I'm a little busy these days. I see you got the message."

A large scroll depicting Anko's Heaven Seal covered most of the table. Jiraiya nodded. "Yeah, good work. This has to be at least eighty percent of the seal, including most of the important parts. It'd be nice to find out for sure what's in those little knots near the center, but I don't suppose there's much chance of that?"

Naruto sat at the table and shook his head. "It was tricky as hell even getting this much. Maybe if we had a few months to do special training and experiment, but that's not going to happen."

Left unsaid was the fact that spending half the day as the subject of his best techniques had left Anko a babbling, semi-conscious mess, and he was a little afraid to push things any further than that. He'd never believed Jiraiya's wild stories about lost techniques that could turn hardened kunoichi into pleasure-addicted love-slaves, but maybe he'd been wrong. What else could possibly make a woman like Anko look at him the way Sakura used to look at Sasuke?

Fortunately she'd been back to normal the next day, but he wasn't going to take any chances.

He shook his head, and dragged his attention back to the matter at hand. "So, do you think we can remove it? I saw a couple of good places to start, but the way it's tangled up with her chakra system it's going to be tough to finish the job without doing so much damage even her regeneration can't save her."

The older ninja nodded. "Yeah, the way these inner loops are imprinted on her chakra coils is going to make them a bitch to remove. It'd actually be easier to just steal ownership of the damned thing, but then she's just trading one master for another. I haven't solved that problem yet, but I think I did figure out where the malfunction is."

"Oh?" Naruto asked, following along with interest as Jiraiya pointed out a seal array near the heart of the diagram.

"It's actually pretty simple, just a detail Orochimaru hadn't thought of yet when he developed this version of the seal. This emotional trigger here isn't filtered precisely enough, and neither are the feedback loops. I'm betting the newer version has more specific filters, and probably leaves off this extra loopback section…"

"Hmm." Naruto eyed the diagram speculatively. "So it was supposed to be triggered by bloodlust, and amplify it into an uncontrollable berserker state. But it isn't selective enough, so any kind of aggressive desire can set off the loop and the output is kind of a confused jumble of emotions. Yeah, I get it. So what would happen if we added a filter step and a governor, like this…"

He grabbed a brush and one of the thin sheets of tracing paper that were stacked at the corner of the table, and deftly sketched out a complex addition to the seal array.

Jiraiya's eyebrows rose as he placed the addition over its intended location. "You mean, steal control of the seal and modify it instead of removing it? Well, this would make it a lot more controllable."

In theory Naruto's scheme would tune the emotional feedback loop to be triggered by the desire to protect, rather than simple bloodlust, and the governor would allow the seal to be deactivated manually if it was triggered by accident. There was even a 'circuit breaker' array to prevent the feedback from burning out the user, which was almost enough to turn Orochimaru's invention into something a sane ninja might want. But mind-affecting seals were more art than science, and he'd learned not to rely on that anything that complicated to work exactly as expected. The modification might work, but it was just as likely to bring out her mothering instinct or give her a craving for children. Or something even more unexpected…

The old pervert chuckled, and grabbed his own brush. "Sure you don't want the filter to look more like this?"

Naruto growled as Jiraiya sketched his proposal. The toad sage's version was tuned to lust, of course, and keyed so the seal's owner could activate it at will. "We're not trying to invent some kind of sexual mind control seal, pervo-sensei," he complained.

"Chicken," the self-proclaimed super-pervert pouted. "Fine, fine, I'll just hold that thought for later. You may be on to something, but it's more likely to work if you aren't so fancy with it. I also see a resonance problem with the amplifier loop…"

--oOoOo--

On a hilltop overlooking a small town in southern Lightning Country, a pair of ninja in Akatsuki robes stood under the trees and argued as night fell.

"I still don't see why we have to hide out up here," Hidan complained. "There's a decent-looking inn in this town, and these yokels couldn't see through a genin's illusions. We could be down there eating real food right now."

"The target won't be here for a week, and I'm not going to waste the money I paid to lure her out here," Kakuza growled. "A-rank missions aren't cheap, you know."

"Please, that chump change? Raid one noble estate and we could make it back ten times over. Come on, I'm bored already," Hidan whined.

Kakuza shook his head. "Exactly. If we stay in town you'll start killing people and blow our cover."

"Aw, you got me," Hidan conceded. "Ok, I guess we stay here. But how do we tell when she gets here?"

Kakuza knelt to place one palm on the ground, and a swarm of threads emerged from the seam at his wrist to begin burrowing into the ground. "I'll have the whole town wired by morning," he declared. "Just wait. The two-tails will come to us soon enough, and until then I can make sure we don't have any disguised meddlers hanging around."

Well up the slope behind them an owl blinked in consternation, and took flight. Careful not to spook its prey, it glided silently away among the trees until the humans were over a mile behind it, well out of range of even the most sensitive chakra detection techniques. Then it landed on a branch, and vanished in a wisp of smoke.

--oOoOo--

A few days later another messenger clone interrupted Team Orange's lunch, with a pair of packages that had Naruto grinning with anticipation. He immediately handed one of them to Sakura.

"Here, these are for you. Just a little something so if you end up fighting shark-face you can actually parry that weird sword of his."

"Okay," Sakura said as she unwrapped the package. Inside she found two curved plates of light steel, about the right thickness to use as armor. They could almost be bracers, but there were no straps or buckles to hold them on. She frowned as she considered them. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea, though. Legendary weapons have a nasty tendency to go right through your armor instead of bouncing off."

"Oh, that won't be a problem with these babies. Those plates are chakra-hardened steel, and I sunk enough power into them to stand up to a bijuu's attacks," Naruto explained proudly. "I even worked in a seal array on the bottom of each plate to keep lightning chakra from conducting through it into your arm."

"Oh! That is useful," Sakura responded with interest. "Thank you. But, um, how do I wear them?"

Naruto grinned again. "I made it with chakra armor tech. Just drop your force field and hold each bracer in place while you mold chakra for a few minutes. Once it takes on your chakra nature the suit's self-repair array should take over and fuse it in place."

"Wow, that's pretty slick, Naruto." Sakura held one of the steel plates against her forearm, considering what would be the best placement. "So, does this mean you're a seal master on top of everything else?"

"Eh, depends on what you need done. I'm pretty good with quick-and-dirty seal mechanics, but I'm not one of those technical genius types. Designing stuff like chakra armor and flying machines takes way too much math for me. But I can power up more seals in a day than most guys could manage in a year, and when it comes to simple brute-force techniques I can dump in so much energy that nothing's going to beat them. Why, got something else you want?"

"I'll have to think about it," Sakura replied. "If this stuff's as tough as you say I'd love to add more, but I'm not sure I can afford the weight."

"What's in the other package?" Hinata asked.

"Oh, that. Heads up, Anko-chan." Naruto unwrapped the package with a deft motion, revealing a sheathed ninjato which he tossed to the special jounin.

She caught it, and half-drew it to examine the blade. It was forged in the style most ninja villages had adopted during the last great war, with a square guard and a straight, heavy blade only twenty inches long. Difficult to break and ideal for close-quarters combat, they were still the weapon most jounin preferred for serious battles. Anko often carried one, but Samehada had made short work of it.

"Nice," she commented as she eyed the forge marks along the blade. "I'm guessing this one isn't going to break on me if I parry a legendary weapon?"

"Oh, I did better than that," Naruto replied with a grin. "Channel some chakra into it."

Anko gave him a startled look, and drew the blade fully before channeling a trickle of energy into it. Normal steel tended to resist the intrusion of living chakra, but the weapon in her hand drank it in eagerly. Then there was a hiss like hot metal striking water, and the edge of the blade burst into flame. Anko was so startled she nearly dropped it, before she realized what she was seeing.

"It's a chakra blade!" She exclaimed. "Holy crap! You made me a real chakra blade, with an elemental nature and everything. Thank you thank you thank you! I love it!"

--oOoOo--

When Moryo was last sealed there was initially talk of creating elaborate fortifications atop the widely-separated prisons where its body and spirit were trapped. But the daimyos of the day proved unwilling to shoulder such an expensive burden, and in the end they decided to make do with more modest forts defended by teams of ninja. Originally three chuunin teams had been assigned to each prison, a sufficient force to deter any effort to revive the demon lord.

Then the third ninja war threw the world into chaos, and those troops were needed elsewhere. So the garrison had declined to two teams, then one, then to a team of genin. Finally the duty was assigned to ordinary soldiers, who came to regard it as a largely ceremonial post. After all, Moryo had lain dormant for more than twenty years now, and who would be insane enough to try to free a demon that wanted to destroy the world?

They lasted less than a minute against Yomi's ninja. Five minutes after that he was standing over the shattered entrance to the prison that had once held Moryo's soul. As a disembodied spirit the demon would have been unable to travel any distance, but possessing the fanatical medic-nin solved that problem easily enough.

_Now, let us revive my army and destroy this world! And send those ninja of yours to kill the High Priestess of Demon Country._ The demon raged.

Yomi smiled thinly. "She's already secured, my lord. An associate of ours replaced Demon Country's daimyo some time ago, and I received word just this morning that he succeeded in capturing her. Her guards believe she's been kidnapped by Konoha ninja, so they'll waste their time chasing false trails while the girl languishes in her daimyo's dungeon. I can send the order to finish her off at any moment."

_I see. Yes, if her powers are not fully matured her precognition would warn her only of immediate lethal threats. So a diversion and capture first, and now we have her at our mercy. Excellent work, my servant._ _Without her warnings no one will be aware of my release, and if we move quickly we can complete my revival without interference. My army can wait. Gather your ninja, we leave for Swamp Country at once!_

"No!" Shion started awake, and shot upright with a gasp. "Moryo is free! We have to stop…them…"

But no one heard. Her prison cell was buried in the deepest recesses of the daimyo's personal dungeon, empty, silent, and utterly dark. Even the rats rarely visited this remote corner of hell. She'd woken from her first night's sleep in the daimyo's palace to find herself imprisoned, with no idea when or how she had come to be here. That was at least a day ago, but she'd yet to have any visitors. For all she knew she wasn't even in Demon Country any more. This could be an ANBU prison in Konoha. It might have been days since she was captured, or weeks.

"No. Oh, I'm an idiot," she groaned. "The demon's followers must be the ones responsible. They must have spread that rumor about Konoha, and then infiltrated the palace somehow."

"Not quite, girl, but not too far off the mark" came a voice like gravel. "You may be of more use that I'd thought."

Shion spun with a gasp as a dim light sprang up to illuminate the cramped cell, revealing a massive hunchbacked figure swathed in concealing robes. A mask concealed most of his face, but his hairless head and gleaming eyes were uncovered.

She cringed back, uncomfortable aware of her lack of clothes or blankets, and shook her head to let a cascade of unruly blonde hair fall down before her. It wasn't much, but it was better than letting the pervert ogle her bare breasts. His eyes were so fixed and staring…wait, there was something wrong with them…

She stifled a scream as he pulled his mask down, revealing a terrifying confusion of blades where his mouth should have been. It wasn't a man at all, but some kind of monstrous puppet!

"Can you believe that idiot Yomi thinks I'm going to kill you? As if I'd let such a resource go to waste. Don't worry, girl, I'm going to take good care of you." He loomed over her and ran one finger appraisingly along her shoulder. "Yes, good skin. The scars will hardly show."

"Scars?! What are you doing?" She tried to pull away, but she was strapped securely in place. Bright lights shone in her eyes, glinting off trays of gleaming knives.

The thing chuckled dryly. "Doing? Why, I'm going to make you a puppet, girl. A flawless weapon preserved forever, the perfect instrument to deal with that demon when it turns on us. Now, hold still." It bent over her again, reaching for her eyes with a strangely curved blade.

"No! Help! Someone, anyone, please help me!" She screamed as the knife touched her face…and woke again, to find herself shaking and covered in sweat in the dark.

"Two visions in one night?" She whispered shakily to herself. "What's going on? Wait, I'm still dreaming."

"You wanted help, girl," growled a half-familiar voice, and a ruddy glow sprang up to reveal a vast cave around her. A gigantic pair of glowing eyes looked down on her from above. "Are you willing to bargain for it?"

She swallowed nervously. "Yes. I have to stop Moryo. But who are you?"

The flames flared brighter, illuminating a huge, furred shape and a sea of writhing tails. "Do you really need to ask?"

"Kyuubi!" She gasped. "But you're supposed to be sealed…" She trailed off as she noticed the bars between them, and heaved a sigh of relief.

"…and so you are," she finished. "What kind of aid can you give me from within your prison? And what price would you demand? I'm not foolish enough to free a greater threat to stop a lesser one."

"What can I do? I can tell my jinchuuriki that little Moryo is half free. Then he can warn the Leaf ninja and rescue you. And in return, you're going to help him send me home."

She blinked. "You want to be banished back to hell? Why would you want that?"

The great fox snorted. "Idiot girl. Do you know how long I've been stuck on this miserable little ball of mud? There's been no prey here worth hunting since your ancestors fled, and there are certainly no vixens worth bothering with. I'm done with this place. You are the last kami in this world whose chakra glows with the light of heaven, and you're going to help the brat send me home."

"Um, I'm not-" Shion began.

"Unless you'd rather let that little monkey turn you into a living puppet?" The Kyuubi interrupted maliciously. "You'd still be aware, you know. It could be a thousand years before you were destroyed.

She shuddered. "No, not that. Bad enough I have to die to stop Moryo…"

The fox gave a harsh bark of laughter. "Hild's frown, girl, how stupid are you? Do you think my jinchuuriki would have any trouble with a pathetic hate-shade like Moryo? Let him break your seal and you can live to see endless generations of your prissy little holy spawn walk the world. Now, do we have a bargain?"

"Break my seal?" Shion frowned in confusion. She wasn't under a seal, was she? Then her eyes widened, and a touch of pink tinged her cheeks. "Oh! You mean…oh, my. Um, I see. Very well, if that's the price I have to pay to protect the world. Rescue me, help me stop Moryo, and when the battle is done I shall do everything in my power to pay your price."


	8. Meeting Engagement

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Hiashi set down the last of the purloined documents, and allowed the barest hint of a frown to reach his face. The details of his wayward daughter's new assignment were not at all what he'd been led to expect. Apparently the Hokage was starting another of her hare-brained schemes, and the council would no doubt be called on to reign her in again for the good of Konoha.

But of more immediate concern was the fact that he'd heard nothing about this from the girl herself. The Hyuuga were supremely effective spies, and it was customary for clan members to ferret out the details of their assignments in advance and report them to the clan. Even if she'd been lax in that duty, there were two clan members working in the Hokage's tower where she'd met her contact. The clan had long since devised a secret form of sign language that was invisible to anyone who lacked the byakugan's high-definition chakra perception, so it would have been child's play for her to report in without being caught at it. Their special methods of marking a trail were equally subtle, so even if she'd been told nothing it should have been trivial to send an agent to observe her new team.

Instead, she had vanished without so much as an extended mission notice. It had taken a week to learn from other sources that she was assigned to a new ANBU team along with the Hokage's apprentice, and not expected back for several months. He'd actually had to assign one of the clan's jounin to the case to find out why.

His frown deepened. The Kyuubi container was leading a special team to fight Akatsuki? Obviously the boy had used his influence with the Hokage to arrange this, and Hinata had gone along with it eagerly. Apparently she thought his own instructions to stay away from the volatile demon container could be safely ignored.

This was unacceptable.

A certain amount of willfulness was tolerable, even desirable, in an heir. But not a branch house member. It was time to bring the girl to heel, before she brought any more embarrassment to the clan. He summoned his secretary.

"Anzi, please bring me the marriage prospect files," he directed the younger man. "Then prepare a notice of recall from active duty for Hinata. Once that's done, I need you to arrange a private meeting with Danzo and Homura…"

--oOoOo--

A few blocks away the Hokage was contemplating her own delivery of unpleasant news. She frowned at Naruto and suppressed the urge to break into her sake stash early today.

"So the only information you have on this thing with Moryo comes from the Kyuubi? That's not the most credible source, you know."

"I know, I know." Naruto sighed. "Look, I know he's not exactly an ally, but I don't think he'd make up something like this just to mess with us. We'd find out the truth pretty quick, and then I'd never believe him about anything else. He's still trying to convince me to set up this big reverse-summoning technique he says will send him home, so it would be really stupid to get caught lying about something else."

"Does he really think you're going to fall for that?" Tsunade asked. "You'd have to let him out first, and you'd have to be an idiot to even consider risking that."

"Actually, we wouldn't," Naruto replied. "See, the seal is only four-dimensional, so it's open to summoning space. If we do it right we could banish him back to his own world without ever affecting the seal, and then I'd just have an empty demon prison on my belly. But we'd need some stupidly huge amount of chakra, a lot more than even I can pull off, and I'm not sure if I'd actually survive the whole thing."

Tsunade snorted. "Let's not test that anytime soon. Ok, so he's got a good reason not to get caught lying to us unless it's actually going to get him released. That means this is probably for real, but most of the other villages aren't going to believe that without proof. We're going to have to handle this ourselves for now, and carefully. I assume you've got a way to find this priestess?"

"Sure." Naruto nodded.

"Good. Take Team Orange and extract her from this mess she's gotten into. By the time you've done that we should have a better idea what's going on, and I'll let you know where we need her. I'll send Gai's team up to Swamp Country to guard the other prison, but I want you to get some flyers up there right away in case Moryo gets there first."

"Got it. What about the situation up in Lightning?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Those guys are almost as paranoid as Stone, Naruto, and we can't afford to antagonize them. Especially now. You can watch, but you're not to do anything else unless their jinchuuriki actually gets caught."

"Aw, man. But granny-"

"Don't 'but granny' me, brat!" Tsunade growled. "No intervening unless they capture her, and that's an order! Now get going. If you've got enough spare clones to worry about someone else's jinchuuriki you can send yourself some reinforcements. For right now containing Moryo is our first priority."

--oOoOo--

Two hundred miles to the northwest Team Orange was already breaking camp. All four members of the team were reasonably skilled with storage seals, and the various supplies and gear they'd been making use of vanished rapidly into their scrolls. Naruto cancelled the seals on the underground shelters and collapsed them while a party of clones filled in the fire pit and policed the area for lost items. In a matter of minutes there was no sign that the team had ever been there.

Of course, the surrounding forest still bore the scars of two weeks of high-intensity ninja training. But Naruto's clones had been collecting lost missile weapons and sanitizing battle sites all along, and it didn't seem worthwhile to torch the whole area just to hide the patches of destruction left by their jutsu.

"Ok, ladies, listen up," he announced as the three kunoichi completed their preparations. "Here's what we know right now. Someone sneaky is trying to free the demon lord Moryo. If the name doesn't sound familiar, he's that guy with the army of statues that was split up and sealed into two different prisons about twenty years ago. We've got intel that some group of idiots has already opened one prison, and they're going for the other one right now. The only person with the power to seal Moryo again is the High Priestess of Demon Country, and she's apparently been kidnapped."

"Well, crap." Anko commented dryly. "Someone really screwed the pooch on this one, didn't they?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but all we can do right now is pick up the pieces. Anko, I want you to take a clone team and fly out to the other prison. The Hokage is sending Team Gai to reinforce you, but you'll have to hold out for a day or two until they get there."

Anko grinned eagerly. "No sweat, boss. They won't get past me."

"Good. The rest of us are going to track down this priestess and extract her. We don't know who's holding her or why she's still alive, so we'll have to be discreet about looking for her."

"Ah, so that's why Anko's on the other team," Sakura commented archly. "Good call. Their daimyo wouldn't be happy if she turned his country into a giant smoking crater."

"Hah! You're just jealous you can't keep up with me, little girl," Anko shot back.

Naruto cleared his throat, and they both turned their attention back to him. "Right." He said. "Anyway, I want you all to be careful out there. This Moryo guy is supposed to be as tough as a bijuu, and we've got no idea who's trying to free him. I wouldn't be surprised if Akatsuki was involved in this somehow, so don't forget that anyone you tangle with could be one of them."

He paused to study his fledgling team. All three wore form-fitting black chakra armor and a black cloak trimmed with orange flames at the bottom, just like his own. But after two weeks of customizing certain differences were starting to emerge.

The storage crystal on Anko's chest was red now, thanks to her copious use of fire-natured chakra, and her boots and gloves had turned a dark red as well. Sheathed weapons and equipment pouches filled with various nasty surprises were secreted all about her person, and she wore her cloak thrown back from her shoulders to show off her figure. She stood with her hands on her hips, impatient with waiting and eager for action.

In contrast, Hinata had attached only a pair of snug shuriken pouches and a small scroll case to her armor. She was still a bit shy about being seen in the tight-fitting suit, and had developed the habit of hiding herself in her cloak when not actually in combat. Her storage crystal was a pale blue, darkening slowly as it took on her water nature, but between her stealth and mist techniques it would be a rare enemy who actually saw it. She waited patiently, but he thought he detected a hint of nervousness beneath her serene façade.

Oddly, Sakura's crystal was the green of medical chakra rather than the red of her fire nature. Her suit was also the most heavily modified, from the armored gloves and bracers to the sculpted steel chest-plate he'd added just the day before. She carried as many pouches as Anko, although most contained medical supplies or other gear rather than weapons. At first she'd been nearly as shy about being seen in just her armor as Hinata, but somewhere along the way she'd stopped worrying about it. Her cloak blew freely in the breeze now, revealing glimpses of lithe curves and polished steel as she double-checked her equipment.

They were a good team, if one with a few rough edges. But were they good enough to face what was coming?

_Yeah, I think they are,_ he decided. _Besides, I'm not going to let anything happen to them._

"This is our first official Team Orange mission, so don't forget that we're supposed to be anonymous. Hinata, Sakura, you've both done great in training. It's time for you to get your masks and code names."

Hinata smiled quietly as Anko donned the demon mask she'd worn before, and Naruto retrieved another pair of the porcelain masks from an equipment pouch. She'd been waiting for this since she'd spotted a clone discreetly delivering them a week ago.

"The tradition in ANBU has always been to assign masks and code names based on animals, but they've already taken all the ones that aren't embarrassing. Besides, the reason the Hokage had to form a special anti-Akatsuki force in the first place was because the regular ANBU isn't up to the job. So I decided there aren't going to be any pets or farm animals or shy little forest critters on this team. Anko here is Oni. Hinata," he said as he handed her a mask, "you're Ghost. Sakura," he handed over the second mask, "you're Tanuki. And I'm Dragon."

"What do the stripes mean, Naruto?" Hinata asked as she slipped her mask on. Anko's mask sported a single orange slash on the right cheek, as did Naruto's, but she'd noted that her own and Sakura's were plain.

"You get one for every fight we win against S-rank opponents," he explained.

Sakura put her mask on, and gasped. "Hey! It's transparent from the inside! So that's how ANBU fights in these things."

Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, cutting off your peripheral vision with a regular mask would be stupid. There's also a seal that's supposed to keep Byakugan users from seeing through it from the outside, though apparently it doesn't work.

"N-no, it does," Hinata corrected. "It's just that a Hyuuga can stand behind you and look through your head to see your face, so it doesn't make much difference. But I have trouble seeing through someone else's chakra armor, so it may actually work for us."

"Huh. Good to know. Ok, we're burning daylight here. Anko, I'll stay in touch. Let's move out."

Even ninja would normally have needed more than a day to cover the distance to the capital of Demon Country, but most ninja can't fly. Naruto's team went airborne a few miles from the camp site, at which point their speed nearly doubled. They stayed just above the tree tops, weaving their way through the wooded hills of northern Fire Country and over the deep ravines that scarred the landscape with increasing frequency as they approached the border. They made several detours to avoid settlements, but even so they were well into Demon Country by noon. There the landscape gradually became more rugged, the forest broken up by large stretches of blasted barrens and not-so-ancient lava flows.

At that point Naruto ducked into one of the massive craters that dotted the landscape, and set down among a tumble of boulders beside a small spring. Hinata and Sakura followed him down, switching to stealth mode as they landed. In a few seconds there was no visible sign of the team's presence, and only the most skilled hunter nin could have detected them at any distance.

"Ok team, we'll have to go sneaky from here on in," Naruto declared. "We don't have any idea who we're up against or why they didn't just kill the priestess as soon as they got her, so we can't afford to be spotted until we find her."

"Right," Sakura agreed. "We don't want them to panic and kill her before we can pull off a rescue. How are we going to do this, anyway? Did our source know where they're holding her?"

"Not a clue," Naruto grimaced. "Well, somewhere in central Demon Country, but that doesn't narrow it down much. I've got a summon that says he can tell what direction she's in, but he's not exactly subtle. I figure I'll call him up here and take a bearing, then we find another hiding spot twenty or thirty miles west of here and do it again. Triangulating from that should get us within a few miles of the right spot. Hinata, I'm counting on you to take it from there."

"N-no problem," the Hyuuga girl answered. "But, um, I've never heard of a summon that could point out a particular person from so far away. What kind of sense could do that?"

Naruto suddenly looked nervous. "Um, fuzz-butt says he's got the scent of her soul, whatever that means. I don't really get it, but he's probably telling the truth. Anyway, don't freak out, ok? This is just a summon form, so I can dismiss him whenever I want."

He started a series of seals, and Sakura's eyes suddenly went wide in alarm. "Wait, are you saying you've got a summoning contract with-"

"Summoning Technique: Little Red Furball!" Naruto slapped one hand against the ground as he completed the technique, and a puff of smoke momentarily obscured the area. It blew away to reveal a fox the size of a large dog, with burning eyes and nine tails made of flame.

"-the Kyuubi!" Sakura gasped, automatically shifting her suit to combat mode as she fell back into a defensive stance.

Hinata activated her Byakugan, but otherwise failed to react. The demon fox ignored them both in favor of taking a look around and sniffing the breeze.

"My god, Naruto, have you lost your mind?!" Sakura shrieked. "Are you trying to get us all killed?"

The fox turned to look at her, and she nervously took another step back.

"Hey, brat, I think the loud one's about to piss itself," the demon observed with a chuckle. "Wait, it has pink fur. Don't tell me that's the female you've been sniffing after all this time?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Will you just get on with it? Don't worry, Sakura, we've got a deal. Not that he's got enough chakra free to do much anyway."

Sakura gaped at him. "Naruto, it has more chakra than most jounin! God only knows what it can do if it gets a chance, and you can't possibly mean you trust a demon to keep its word-"

The Kyuubi snarled at her, unleashing wave of killing intent so strong she nearly fainted. "Cease your ignorant yapping, monkey! No demon has broken a bargain since before your kind discovered language. You humans are the ones who make an art of faithlessness."

"Sakura, stop it." Naruto interrupted her indignant reply. "I know what I'm doing. Besides, if you're that worried the last thing you should be doing is pissing him off."

"Indeed." The Kyuubi huffed, and turned its attention to the north. After a moment it pointed. "The holy chakra is that way. At least twenty miles, but probably less than a hundred."

"Ok, got it," Naruto nodded as he pulled out a map and carefully marked the direction. "I'll call you again in about a half hour for a second reading."

"Very well. But I warn you, if that screeching monkey insults me again I'm going to eat her soul. And as for the other one…" The Kyuubi stopped, and cocked his head curiously as he paused to examine Hinata. He sniffed the air, and his eyes narrowed.

"Why is there no stink of fear about you, girl?" He asked menacingly. "Do you think you can stand against the devourer of gods?"

"O-of course not," Hinata replied quietly. "But I t-trust Naruto."

The fox blinked, and settled back on its haunches. After a moment it gave a sharp bark of laughter. "You didn't tell me you had a worshipper, brat. What's it's name?"

"Her name is Hinata," Naruto answered. "And she's not my worshipper, she's my teammate."

"Tell it someone who can't smell faith, brat. Oh, and she's from that line with the dragon eyes, too." The fox chuckled again, and shook its head. "Well, you'll learn. Now send me back before the monkey decides to start throwing crap at me or something."

Sakura fumed all the way to the second stop.

"I can't believe you're letting that monster out like that," she ranted. "Does the Hokage know about this? Because I can't believe Tsunade-sensei would authorize something so dangerous. You do realize that thing will kill us all if it gets half a chance!"

"So would any of our opponents, Sakura," Naruto replied evenly.

"Our opponents can't level a city with one attack!" She hissed.

"Want to bet? It isn't that hard to do if you've got enough chakra. Look, just give it a rest, will you? I can handle the fuzz-butt."

"Oh, really? If you've got it so under control, why did you let it insult me like that? It called me a monkey! Do I look anything like a monkey? Hmpf! Fling pooh indeed…"

"Perhaps Danzo-sama is right, that peace is making Konoha soft," Hinata murmured.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura demanded hotly.

"An article nine in the middle of an S-rank mission to save the world, Sakura?" The other girl replied.

Sakura flushed. Article nine of the Konoha charter dealt with disciple among ninja on field missions. It was one of those draconian regulations left over from the village's more authoritarian past, and pretty much required perfect respect and instant obedience at all times. In the old days you could be executed on the spot for questioning an order, let alone actually criticizing the superior who gave it. No one took it quite that seriously these days, of course, but maybe an extended rant while they were supposed to be sneaking around was a little over the top.

"Whatever," Sakura shot back. "Fine, I'll wait until we get back. But Tsunade-sensei's going to have a fit when she hears about this one."

Finally they found a concealed hollow at the base of a cratered bluff, and Naruto prepared to repeat the summoning. "Now Sakura, just don't say anything to him, ok? Now that he's warned me he really will attack you if you say anything he takes as an insult, and I might need to use him like this again."

"Fine," she grumbled. "Take the demon's side over your teammate, see if I care. I'm going to keep watch from up there." She waved vaguely at the top of the bluff, and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto shook his head with a sigh. "Why does everything have to be so hard with her? Oh, well. Let's get this done."

--oOoOo--

The sun was just beginning to set as Team Orange settled onto a rooftop overlooking the palace where the daimyo of Demon Country resided. The city streets below were still filled with traffic, producing more than enough background noise to mask a quiet conversation.

"Well, I wasn't expecting this," Naruto commented as he eyed the fortified complex. The daimyo's palace was a cluster of large stone buildings surrounded by several acres of perfectly manicured lawn. The wall separating the grounds from the surrounding city was only twelve feet high, barely enough to be considered an obstacle, but the prospect of crossing two hundred yards of open ground in broad daylight wasn't terribly appealing. The sentry towers and roving patrols with guard dogs would be hard enough to slip past, and there were bound to be some local ninja around as well.

"Any chance they're just hiding her in the city?" He asked hopefully.

"It's possible," Hinata admitted. "It would take a few hours to search every nook and cranny. But holy chakra should stand out like a beacon, and this is the only complex in the area with shielding. Either she's in there, or they've got a seal master hiding her."

"Hmm. I guess it might be an inside job," he mused. "But searching in there without getting caught is going to be a pain."

"There's an awful lot of activity," Sakura pointed out. "And some of those guards are wearing the temple's colors. They obviously know she's been kidnapped. If we can find their leader I bet he could help us narrow down where to look."

"Unless he's in on it," Hinata pointed out.

Sakura shrugged. "If he is, that gives us someone to question. It's not like we're going to let some ordinary soldier sound an alarm."

Naruto frowned. "Hinata, can you check the palace from out here?"

The Hyuuga looked away. "N-not really. Their wards aren't very tight, but there are a lot of them. I'd need to get inside the building, and even then I probably won't be able to see through more than three or four walls at a time."

"Which is why we need local help," Sakura insisted. "There's no way we'd get away with searching the whole place ourselves like that. Their ninja might not be first-string, but they can't be that inept."

"If we had more time I think we could pull it off," Naruto claimed. "But you're right, it would take too long to do anything that sneaky. Ok, here's the plan. Hinata, go ahead and start checking the city just in case. She'll probably turn out to be in the palace, but I'd feel really stupid if we just assumed that and she turned out to be hidden in a basement somewhere. Sakura, while she's doing that I want you to work out a disguise and infiltrate the palace. I'll send a clone in with you so we can keep in touch."

"Where are you going to be?" The pinkette asked suspiciously. Naruto nonchalantly pointed at the sky.

"I want to scout around a bit, and see what other forces are lurking around the city," he explained. "If I go bird no one will notice, and I can drop in pretty quick if you need me. Hinata, meet me back here when you finish your search. If Sakura can find a good contact we'll link up with her and see what they can tell us."

--oOoOo--

Hours later, a weary Hinata was nearly back to the rendezvous point when a sudden explosion split the night. She frowned minutely, and increased her pace.

"Tanuki, what the hell, over?" Came Naruto's voice on the headset radios they all wore.

"Ambush!" Sakura answered. "The blast got your clone. Don't worry, I'm...crash…thud…puppet users…crunch…help!"

"Crap. Ghost, where are you?"

She gathered her chakra and leaped, flaring her suit's flight system for an instant to get an extra thirty yards of travel, and settled to the rooftop next to Naruto as softly as falling snow. "Here," she whispered unnecessarily.

"Great. Follow me." Naruto slipped into stealth mode as he jumped the perimeter wall and started across the palace grounds, moving as quickly as he could without making himself blindingly obvious. The blending effect of their cloaks helped, but fast motion tended to ruin it and there wasn't a speck of cover. "I guess letting her go in ahead of us wasn't such a great idea. Damn it," he muttered, "what part of 'we need to do this quietly' was so hard to understand?"

He caught a "…not my fault!" over the radio, amid shrieks of tortured metal and what sounded like someone being thrown through a window. Then there was another explosion, and a column of smoke began to rise from one of the larger buildings of the complex.

"Riiight. And you call Oni violent. Next time someone needs to do the diplomatic thing I'm sending Ghost."

Somehow Hinata suppressed the urge to do a victory dance right there on the lawn, but it wasn't easy. Fortunately the mask hid her smirk.

Another series of thumps and crashes came over the radio. "No, really, it's not my fault!" Sakura insisted plaintively. "They thought she was still here, and we were coming to kidnap her. Only what they thought was the priestess was some kind of stupid puppet under a genjutsu..."

"…which Ghost would have spotted right off, and aren't you supposed to be some kind of genjutsu genius?" Naruto teased. "Don't worry, we're almost…ah, crap!"

A small horde of palace guards came boiling out of the side door he'd been aiming for, their long spears filling the narrow opening with a hedge of pointy metal. A moment later crossbow bolts began hissing out of the upper windows to pepper the lawn in their general vicinity. Apparently someone in there was good enough to see through their camouflage, at least when they were running across an open field. He could blast a path through their defenses easily enough, of course, but he really didn't want to have to kill a whole platoon of guardsmen.

"Ghost?" He began.

"I've got it," she replied. _Alright, Hinata,_ she thought to herself. _Here's your chance to show Naruto he can rely on you. Don't blow it._

"Intruders!" Shouted a guard. "Halt in the name of the daimyo!"

Hinata slipped between the bristling spear-points of the guards' hedgehog defense with casual ease. An instant later she was among them, flowing effortlessly through their ranks as her hands flashed out to send hair-thin spikes of chakra lancing through armor and into the vital points beneath. In seconds the floor was choked with unconscious guardsmen, and she spun to a stop before a heavy iron-bound door that apparently led deeper into the palace.

"Nice moves, Ghost!" Naruto commented approvingly as he joined her. He smashed the door with a Rasengan, just for old times' sake.

"T-t-thank you," she stuttered in reply, thankful that her mask hid the blush she could feel heating her face. _This mask really is proving useful,_ she thought.

Another explosion shook the palace. "A little help here would be nice, lovebirds!" Sakura complained. "Jeez, how many puppets do these guys have? That makes thirty so far, along with a genin squad and a few dozen soldiers. Uh oh, this guy's wearing an Akatsuki robe."

Naruto frowned worriedly. "Damn, it is a trap. Stay alive, Tanuki. We're inbound from the south, be there in under a minute."

"What about the priestess?" Hinata asked.

"Can you see her?" He shot back.

"Not yet," she admitted. "This place has deep dungeons."

"Damn. You're right, we can't take a chance on them killing her while I'm busy. Time to reveal another trick, I guess."

He slid to a stop while biting his thumb, and slammed his suddenly blood-smeared hand against the floor. "Summoning Technique: Little Red Furball!"

The mini-Kyuubi looked around and snickered. "Oh, this looks like fun."

"I'm sure. I need you to help 'Ghost' here find the priestess, preferably without killing too many people."

"Spoilsport," the fox complained. "Alright, but I won't take orders from her."

"That's fine, I'm sending a clone team with you. You want your usual, Ghost?"

Hinata shook her head. "No, for this I'd like a type two close combat team, please."

"You got it." The blonde jinchuuriki formed a single seal, and a trio of identical kunoichi clones appeared around them. "There, now hurry. Get the target and get out of here. Kyuubi, if they get clear of the palace while we're still fighting this Akatsuki guy you're welcome to come help us kill him."

The fox chuckled. "We'd better hurry, then. Come along, girl."

--oOoOo--

A few hundred miles to the northeast another battle was playing out. Most of the village where Hidan and Kakuzu had set their ambush was already a smoking ruin, and the rest wasn't going to last much longer. Not that the villagers would care, since they'd apparently been turned into some kind of weird thread-infested zombie horde at some point during Kakuzu's preparations. Naruto was pretty sure Yugito's first hint of danger was when one of her teammates got possessed and turned on them.

Not that he could get close enough to see details. Between the monstrous killing intent rolling off Yugito's Nibi form and those huge elemental attacks Kakuzu kept throwing around there wasn't a living thing for miles that wasn't hiding in its burrow or fleeing in terror. As long as he had to stay covert the best he could do was hide in the rocks on one of the steep hills overlooking the area and watch the pretty fireworks.

But it sure looked like the giant cat-monster was slowing down, and the other two were still going strong.

--oOoOo--

Without Hinata's eyes Naruto was a little concerned about his ability to find Sakura in time, but he needn't have worried. Not a minute after they separated he came around a corner only to see her blown through a stone wall right in front of him. She bounced off the opposite wall of the corridor and tumbled back to her feet as a multi-ton metal monstrosity covered with spikes and blades clambered through the hole after her. She ducked the sweep of a massive blade, wove through a barrage of flying spikes and planted a punch in its midsection that sent it flying back through the hole in a shower of broken parts.

"It's about time you got here," she panted. "I was running out of chakra. Watch out for poison gas. This guy's got hundreds of puppets stuffed with dirty tricks, and I can't figure out where he's controlling them from. I thought I had him a minute ago but it was just another puppet."

"Got it. Don't worry, I'll find him." Naruto called up a squad of wind clones and sent them into the dining hall on the other side of the hole to search.

An instant later the clones were engulfed in a fireball.

"Oh, yeah, and he's got seal traps everywhere," Sakura added.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks for the warning. Good thing I'm using the expensive clones."

The smoke cleared to reveal that all four clones had survived, since their chakra armor worked just as well as the original's. They closed with the small crowd of puppets at the far end of the hall and began merrily tearing them to bits with Rasengan strikes and wind blades.

"Stay here and recover while I smoke this guy out," Naruto advised as he called up a squad of assistants for his teammate. "Once I pin him down you can help take him out if you want."

"Such casual arrogance," said a grating voice that seemed to come from all around them. "I am Sasori of the Red Sand, whelp, and I was a kage-level ninja when you were still flunking out of the academy. Do you really think you can walk into a trap I've been building for weeks and come out alive?"

Naruto chuckled. "I think I can make clones a lot easier than you can make puppets, and what makes you think I'm even here? Besides, I'm not about to lose to some dork who still plays with dolls."

The violence escalated rapidly after that.

--oOoOo--

In a cave near Suna that hadn't existed a week earlier, Deidara started awake with a snort. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and yawned, then cocked his head as if listening to an unseen voice.

"They took the bait already?" He said with a nasty smirk. "Ok, I'm moving. Just keep them busy for a while, yeah?"

He paused to stretch at the tiny cave's entrance, then stepped outside with another yawn. "How inconsiderate of them, attacking while I was asleep," he muttered to himself. "Well, let's see how the orange wonder handles two battles at once."

He'd added a new piece of gear to his attire in recent weeks – a bandoleer stuffed with dozens of small storage scrolls. Now he extracted one and activated it with a single practiced motion, releasing its contents in a puff of smoke. An instant later a forty-foot dragon made of explosive clay sat on the sands before him, with a clone of himself mounted on its back.

"You're the obvious attack," he called to his clone. "The attack starts in ten minutes. Get moving."

The fake ninja nodded, and the dragon leaped into the air with a thunderous growl. A moment later it was winging its way towards Suna. Deidara watched it go, and was almost tempted to take the next slot himself.

Then he reminded himself what he was facing. "Only an idiot fights a wind master in the air, yeah?"

A second clone was sent after the first, this one riding a clay bird. Much less conspicuous than the dragon, it would hang back at high altitude until it found a good opening. Then came the burrowers, and the insect swarms, and the explosive fog. Oh, things were going to get hot in Suna tonight.

Finally all the pieces were in motion, and he began to make his own way towards the ninja village on foot.

"It's a good piece," he told himself as he walked. "A little more complicated than my usual taste, but that couldn't be helped, yeah? As long as it ends with a big enough bang, it'll still be a work of art worthy of my name."

He contemplated the contents of the scrolls he still carried, and chuckled. "Yeah, I think the bang will be big enough."

--oOoOo--

The puppet-man had been strapping Shion to an operating table for real when the first explosion shook the palace. The creature paused with an air of annoyance, then shrugged and carefully finished securing her.

"It looks like your conversion will have to wait a bit, girl," it growled as it finished. "Our visitors are here early." It paused to glance at the knives carefully laid out on a tray by the table, and shook its head. "I'm tempted to kill you now, but what if your power really is the only thing that can seal Moryo again? No sense taking chances."

It checked her bonds again and left.

She lay on the cold metal table for what seemed like hours, alone and naked under the bright operating lights. Occasionally there was another explosion, and twice large groups of men rushed by somewhere beyond the door. At first she struggled to free herself, but it quickly became apparent that the heavy leather straps enclosing her wrists, ankles and throat were too tight to escape and too strong to break. She couldn't even cry out, thanks to the rather foul-tasting gag in her mouth.

_Has that jinchuuriki come for me?_ She wondered to herself. _Or is it Moryo's servants, come to kill me? Will they win, or will that thing come back and…finish the job? _She shivered._ Please, not that. Anything but that._

There was a shout from outside, followed by a roar and the crash of steel on steel. She stared at the door. Were those wisps of mist curling under the slab of riveted steel, or was it smoke?

The sounds died away almost as quickly as they'd begun, and for a moment all she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. Then there was a metallic click, and the door swung open.

"Hey, I didn't know you could pick locks like that, Ghost," came a cheerful female voice from the corridor beyond.

"It's easy when you can see the pins," came a soft response. "We're here. Guard the door while I check the target, please."

_Target?_ Shion's stomach lurched as a barely-visible figure glided into the room. It's colors shifted as it moved to blend into the sterile surroundings, but it looked like…a masked ninja, wearing a cloak? She hoped it was a mask, and not another puppet.

The intruder stopped beside the table and studied her for a second. Then the cloak turned black, with a fringe of orange flame, and slender hands emerged to work at the fastenings of her restraints.

"She isn't dressed, so don't come in. I'll have her free in a moment, and she can borrow some of my clothes."

It was the same soft voice as before, and the buxom girl under the cloak was definitely no puppet. Shion spotted the Konoha forehead protector, and sighed in relief. They must be rescuers.

Then the vision struck.

_She stood on a dirt road in some nameless village with the Ghost-masked kunoichi at her side, confronting a stern-faced old man with the pale eyes of the Hyuuga. Around them the villagers exchanged nervous glances and backed away, trying as best they could to avoid attracting attention._

_"Hinata Hyuuga, you are hereby recalled from active duty. You will immediately return with me to Konoha, where you will relinquish your forehead protector and other equipment to the clan and submit yourself to the judgment of the clan head."_

_"We are already returning to Konoha," the kunoichi replied softly. "But I must escort High Priestess Shion to the Hokage personally before I may return home, Kanzai-san. Also, the armor I wear is the property of the government of Snow Country, and may not be surrendered to any other party."_

_Shion started, and looked at the girl in surprise. She'd met the Snow Queen herself on two occasions, but she'd had no idea Yuki was involved with this strange little band of elite ninja._

_Kanzai frowned minutely. "I did not ask your opinion, Hinata. Need I remind you that you are now a branch house member?"_

_Hinata stepped smoothly between Shion and the older man, and this time her reply was firmer. "Team Orange takes orders from the Hokage personally-"_

_"You are a Hyuuga first, Hinata," the older man interrupted. "You will cease this unseemly display and obey my instructions at once, or you will be declared a rebel against the clan and dealt with accordingly."_

_"You will do as you must, Kanzai-san," Hinata replied coolly. "As will I. Now stand aside. I will return to face father's judgment when the Hokage gives me leave to do so, but for now I have a mission to complete."_

_"You think you can put this off?" Kanzai sniffed. "No, girl, your father has already authorized me to take all necessary steps. You are a rebel and a disgrace to the clan, and we are well rid of you."_

_Hinata froze in shock as the man formed a curious seal with one hand. Then her head exploded._

Shion gasped, and clutched at her head with her newly-freed hands as her thoughts swirled in confusion. She saw visions of death with depressing regularity, but she'd never become used to it. It was bad enough seeing her own men die protecting her from assassins, but this was worse. At least their deaths meant something.

"Are you all right?" The kunoichi asked gently. "I don't see any injuries. Did they drug you?"

"No, I…" She hesitated, unwilling to spill too many of her secrets so suddenly. "It can wait. Give me something to wear, and let us leave this awful place."


	9. Victory and Defeat

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

What was once a peaceful little village was reduced to a smoking ruin now, the surrounding hills covered with great craters and stands of burning trees. The corpses of Yugito's chuunin team were lost somewhere in the devastation, mixed with the remains of the zombie horde the villagers had become. Kakuzu's earth-natured heart beast was dead as well, reduced to a scattering of broken threads and an ugly smear of bubbling black goo.

But the two-tails' jinchuuriki was nearly dead as well. Her left arm was reduced to a mass of charred flesh, her right ankle wouldn't hold her weight, and she was covered in cuts and bruises. The sharp stab of pain with every gasping breath told her two ribs were at least cracked, and the deep puncture wounds that marred her legs and belly were still bleeding freely . She staggered as Hidan stabbed himself again, her vision blurring as the injury somehow transferred itself to her. The last dregs of her chakra ran out with the blood, and she fell to one knee.

_Looks like this is it, Nibi,_ she thought to her unseen partner. _Unless you've got a miracle up your sleeve I think they've got me._

_No!_ The ghost cat snarled in answer. _I won't die like this! I…what?...look out!_

Hidan was just raising his weapon for another blow when a blurry swirl of orange and black fell out of the sky between them.

"Hey, that's no way to treat a cute girl," said a cocky male voice. "Even if she is a pretty kickass kunoichi too."

_Jinchuuriki! _The Nibi warned. _Kami preserve us, I smell the Kyuubi's chakra on him._

"Oh, so the clone wonder decided to interfere," Hidan mocked. "That's fine. I've never been able to send someone to Jashin more than once."

"Don't screw around with this guy, Hidan," Kakuzu warned. "He's actually dangerous. We'll go with plan three."

"Yeah, yeah, ok mother."

The world was starting to spin, and Yugito struggled to hold on to consciousness. More orange shapes appeared out of nowhere surrounding her, and one of them bent to scoop her up in his arms.

"What…why are you…helping me?" She asked weakly.

"Hey, us jinchuuriki have to stick together," he said. "Especially since there's a whole group of these nuts trying to kill us all. Let me get you out of here while my other clones take care of these guys, and I promise I'll make sure you get home in one piece. Ok?"

_Say yes!_ The Nibi urged. _For kami's sake, give him whatever he wants!_

Yugito blinked in confusion. Was that really the Nibi? She was normally so fierce…

_He has the Devourer of Gods inside him, Yugito. That thing will eat both our souls if he lets it out, and believe me, that's much worse than dying. So you're going to do whatever it takes to make sure he doesn't want to do that to us, got it?_

She looked up into the stranger's face, wondering what was so terrifying about another bijuu. Then she saw the face, the hair, those piercing blue eyes, and her blood froze. It was a face she'd seen before, in an old bingo book she'd poured over as a genin.

But the Yellow Flash was supposed to be dead!

"Y-yes, sir," she stammered, not sure if she should be terrified or grateful. "Thank you."

He grinned at her, and they vanished in a swirl of chakra.

-oOoOo-

Even Hinata was blinded for a moment when the corridor was plunged into darkness. She heard a startled squeak from Shion as she blinked her Byakugan to full power, piercing the chakra-laced shadows just in time to spot a storm of shuriken bearing down on them.

Suppressing an unladylike curse, she leapt in front of the priestess and invoked her one original technique. Thin beams of bright blue chakra projected from her hands, batting aside dozens of projectiles in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately the corridor was too wide for her to block completely, and her comrades were peppered with projectiles. The two female Naruto-clones in her team were protected by their armor, but the Kyuubi-clone dissolved in a flash of flame that somehow failed to illuminate anything but itself.

"Crap, I can't see!" One of the kunoichi clones exclaimed, as she automatically put her back to the wall and formed a Rasengan in one hand. "Where are they, Ghost?"

The other one was busy being strangled by shadows, and wasn't likely to be much help. Hinata's lips thinned as she forced her awareness through the wards that shielded walls, floor and ceiling in search of their attackers. One was solid, standing just around the corner ahead of them, but the other three had somehow merged with the shadows that filled the corridor.

_No time to be gentle,_ she thought. _I'm sorry, but I can't let you stop us._

A delicate hand flicked a single shuriken down the corridor, trailing a thin thread of chakra that she used to guide it around the bend. Her startled target managed to parry with a kunai, but that simply detonated the weapon. Blood and bits of flesh splattered the walls, and an ominous purple cloud filled that end of the hall.

But the clone that was being strangled popped at the same moment, and now shadowy tendrils were reaching for the rest of them as well. The remaining ninja obviously weren't tangible in their current state, and Hinata wracked her brain for an attack that could reach into the spirit world to hit them. Maybe she could disrupt the chakra maintaining their technique?

The tendrils reaching for the remaining Naruto-clone were shredded by a momentary vortex of cutting wind, and Hinata absently sidestepped the ones from her own opponent. But Shion was an easy target. The high priestess shrieked as the creeping shadows wrapped around her, binding her legs in place and flowing up her slender body in search of her arms.

"No!" She screamed, "I won't go back!"

A warm golden glow burst into existence around the desperate priestess, burning through the darkness to reveal the better part of the corridor. The shadow binds blew away like smoke in a high wind, and the hidden ninja hissed in pain.

"Well done," Hinata observed. Then her eyes narrowed as she remembered a lecture from her academy days. "Can you do a spirit ward?"

Shion drew a shaky breath, and nodded. "Rin, zin, shin, po!" She recited, each syllable accompanied by a crisp hand seal. "Reveal!"

Most priests needed several long minutes to work any significant ritual, and a spirit ward strong enough to collapse dematerialization techniques could easily take hours to construct. Hinata had simply hoped to lure her opponents into exposing themselves to stop the ritual, so she was almost as startled as they were when the ward snapped into existence in mere seconds. The three Demon Country ninja were yanked abruptly back into the material world, their jutsu extinguished as easily as blowing out a candle.

_Well now,_ Hinata thought, _apparently there's a reason everyone thinks this girl can seal a demon lord._

But the foreign shinobi recovered quickly, and moved to surround them with the smooth precision of professionals. The remaining kunoichi clone positioned herself between Shion and the opponent at their rear, leaving Hinata facing the two ninja that barred the way forward.

"That was a good trick," the leader said, "but whatever you were planning to do with that fake priestess isn't going to happen."

"Fake!" Shion squawked indignantly. "I am not a fake, you fool! That monstrous puppet-master has been holding me here right under your noses, and if it weren't for these brave ninja he'd be skinning me alive right now! I demand that you escort me to my guards immediately, and inform the Daimyo of this deception."

The hard-faced man merely rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you've got the haughty bitch act down, but my other squad's guarding the real thing right now so you aren't going to fool me. I'm Kenichi Hasugawa of the Daimyo's guard, and every member of my team is an elite ninja trained to stop the best assassins in the elemental countries. You cannot defeat us. I suggest you surrender now, and hope Konoha decides to ransom you back."

He assumed a taijutsu stance – a hard style Hinata noted absently, with an emphasis on upper-body strikes and blocks – and summoned a crackling corona of electricity that might have made him a tricky opponent if it had been real. But it was only a genjutsu to distract her from the poisoned shuriken he was palming.

Hinata settled into the third ready stance of the Gentle Fist as a shroud of mist wrapped itself around her. "I am Ghost of Team Orange," she replied coolly. "Every member of our team is trained to defeat bijuu and jinchuuriki, Hasugawa-san. As you are neither, I suggest you step aside."

"Uh huh. You should stick with lies someone might believe, girl. Go!"

The leader flung an illusionary bolt of lightning at her to hide a very real pair of shuriken, while his companion produced an equally illusionary blast of flame to disguise his charge.

"All illusion," Hinata whispered to her companions as she stepped into the flames, deflecting the shuriken with two kunai of her own as her mist shroud spilled out to fill the hall. The kunoichi clone behind her likewise ignored the attacks and spawned a pair of duplicates, one of which collected Shion and carried her to the ceiling where she'd be out of the way.

As she danced lightly aside from the flame-breather's attacks and began laying down a Syrup Capture Field Hinata realized, with a twinge of guilt, that she was actually enjoying this fight.

-oOoOo-

"Crap, now Suna's under attack too," Naruto announced with a hint of worry.

Tsunade growled, and threw her mug of tea across the room to smash against the concrete wall. "Damn it, how many of these guys are there? Which one is it this time?"

"Looks like the explosive guy, Deidara," Naruto replied with a frown of concentration. "He just dropped out of the sky on this big clay dragon thing and started tossing bombs all over the village. Gaara's fighting him now, but I can't tell who's going to win yet. I hope I can get a blood clone down there in time to help."

"No," Tsunade ordered. "Suna's a major village, they should be able to handle one S-rank ninja on their own. I need you focused on retrieving Shion so we can stop Moryo. Sasori of the Red Sand is a serious opponent, and there's no telling how deep into your bag of tricks you might have to go to stop him. We can't afford for you to exhaust yourself fighting diversions and lose the real battle. How long would it take you to fly a team from Konoha down there?"

"From here to Suna? About four hours. Maybe three if I push it, but it won't be a fun trip."

"That will have to do. I'm sending Kurenai and her team to assist. They should be able to track this guy down if he runs."

"Got it. And…the other fight?"

Tsunade sighed. "You should have let them take her, and just followed them. We still don't know what they want with the bijuu, and I'd rather have found out with someone who isn't an ally."

"They were killing her, Tsunade," he replied. "I couldn't just sit by and watch. Besides, she'll make a better ally alive than dead, and now she's got a reason to listen when I tell her what's going on. It might even help our relations with Lightning."

"Maybe," Tsunade conceded. "But sooner or later you're going to have to stop trying to save everyone, or you're going to get yourself killed. Ah, hell. Just get her out of there and break off the fight, you hear me? Don't stand there and slug it out with them."

"Ok, ok, I've got a clone team carrying her off now. I covered the area with decoys, and I'm just keeping them busy until my clones get away completely. I…oh, fuck me!"

"What?"

"Deidara just blew up Suna."

-oOoOo-

The shield of sand thrown up by their Kage had actually withstood the titanic explosion, to the amazement of the Sand nin below. But the effort had cost Gaara dearly, and he stood gasping for breath within his hovering shell of sand.

The blond ninja on the clay dragon laughed. "Hey, that was a pretty good trick, yeah? But I brought lots of bombs, and you don't look so hot. Think you can stop me before I do it again?"

The dragon shot into the sky as Gaara's sand reached for it again, but this time Gaara followed his attack up. His sand was too slow to catch such an agile opponent from a distance, but it was much faster at close range. If he could just get close enough...

He was nearly a thousand feet up when the first wave of Deidara's burrowing mines reached the perimeter of the village, and began to detonate. Most of them destroyed only empty buildings, but one went off directly under an unlucky genin team that was nervously guarding the perimeter of the village. There wasn't enough left of them to bury.

As dozens of nearby ninja turned their attention from the battle overhead to this new threat, the real Deidara ghosted easily through their lines. The two clones advancing on foot would tie up dozens of Suna ninja and sow untold chaos, which should distract them from the real attack and force whatever hidden defenses the village might have to come out of hiding.

Every major village had at least three or four S-rank ninja, and a few secret tricks intended to deal with major threats like bijuu. During the great ninja wars every new resource was committed to the fighting as soon as it became viable, and nothing of any significance could remain secret for long. But after so many years of peace the major villages were bound to have whole new arsenals of secret weapons, and Deidara had to admit to some curiosity about what Suna had come up with. Giant battle puppets? Bound sand elementals? A team of S-rank wind or earth users?

Confident that he was prepared for any likely possibility, Deidara settled into a shadowy spot on a rooftop overlooking the village and waited.

-oOoOo-

There were hundreds of puppets, and each one was different. Some fought like men, with swords and knives and thrown shuriken, but they were in the minority. Others spewed clouds of poison smoke from their mouths, or launched blade-fingered hands on lengths of chain, or popped apart to reveal elaborate mechanisms that launched hundreds of kunai or senbon all at once. The first time that happened Naruto just laughed and watched the needles rattle off his chakra shield, but he wasn't going to indulge the impulse again. A guy like Sasori was bound to have puppets with armor-piercing attacks hidden in among the rest.

So he ducked and dodged and wove through the mass, throwing out wind blades to chop up the more delicate constructs while he smashed the tougher ones with Rasengan. Once they tried to dogpile him, but the vortex of cutting wind that sprung up around him reduced twenty puppets to twisted debris in an instant. Now Sasori was more careful with his creations, opting to pile on distractions in hopes of creating an opening he could exploit.

Of course, the battle hadn't been kind to the Daimyo's palace. The wing where it had begun was now a smoking ruin, as were the gardens and outbuildings it had raged across since. Despite Naruto's best efforts their fight had turned back towards the palace instead of out onto the grounds, and the courtyard where he now stood was surrounded on three sides by relatively intact buildings.

For now.

Fortunately the civilians had fled when the fighting started, and so far most of the palace guards had been smart enough to stay out of the way. But they were bound to try a counterattack at some point, and the blond jinchuuriki really didn't want hundreds of deaths on his hands tonight. Better to end the fight before they could get organized.

"So, Sasori," Naruto called. "You're pretty good at this creepy puppet thing, but you should know by now that you can't beat me. Why don't you give up this whole 'evil organization trying to conquer the world' business and go back to Suna? You know your new buddies are bound to betray you sooner or later, so what's the point?"

Sasori – or at least, the puppet that was currently doing the talking – chuckled dryly. "Our leader is an idealist, Naruto. He won't betray anyone unless he has proof that they're plotting against him, and by then it will be far too late. And who says I can't beat you? You do realize most of my puppets have their own chakra, so I've hardly exerted myself at all so far."

Naruto looked impressed. "You've got chakra containers that can go in a storage seal without blowing up? That is a cool trick. But the thing is, your puppets have two big problems against a guy like me. The first one is you have to send orders down those chakra strings to control them, so they're always going to be just a little bit slower than I am."

"So?" Sasori growled. "I have thousands of puppets, and I only have to hit you once. All my weapons are coated with the most lethal poisons in the world."

"Really?" Naruto ran his finger down the blade of one of the kunai lodged in a nearby section of wall, and tasted the oily residue thus collected. "Hmm, some kind of modified blowfish toxin? Yeah, that would be pretty deadly if I weren't a shadow clone."

Sasori started, and glanced around uneasily. When had the kid switched with his clone?

"But that's the other problem, and it's the one you can't beat. See, you're really good at controlling all those puppets at once, but there's only one of you. That means you have to divide your attention between them, which must be pretty rough when you've got multiple opponents. Me, on the other hand…"

Suddenly there were a dozen Naruto's spread across the courtyard, in tight groups of four. All were surrounded by the barely-visible shimmer of chakra shields, and carried blades wreathed in so much wind chakra they'd probably cut steel as easily as air.

"…when I make an army, I actually make an army," Naruto finished. "So, how many of me do you thing you can fight at once, Sasori? Twelve? Twenty? A hundred? Let's find out."

-oOoOo-

"It's just dislocated, sir. I'll have it fixed in a moment."

Kenichi Hasugawa clenched his teeth as the medic-nin popped his right arm back into place. "The rest?"

"There's some organ damage, and you won't be able to mould chakra for a week, but you should recover," the kunoichi reassured him. "I wish I could say the same for the rest of your team. Genma has at least thirty broken bones, and Teuchi...I'm sorry, sir. What happened to you?"

"Konoha," he gasped. It was so hard to focus. Those kunoichi had torn his team apart like they were genin. The dark-haired girl had to be a Hyuuga, but she'd somehow been running massive speed and strength boost techniques at the same time as a chakra shield and at least two water techniques. Even senior jounin would be hard-pressed to match that level of chakra control. The blonde was just as bad, casually tossing around those massively overpowered wind techniques as if she weren't holding up a chakra shield of her own, and this after dividing her chakra with multiple shadow clones. The one pretending to be Shion had stayed out of the fight, but he still had no idea how she'd collapsed their Shadow Meld jutsu.

The one called Ghost hadn't lied. They really were a whole team of S-rank ninja.

The room was starting to spin, but he had to warn the village. He grabbed the medic-nin's vest and pulled her down to his level. "Spread the word," he gasped. "Team Orange... elite ANBU... do... not... engage..."

-oOoOo-

Far to the east, another Naruto winced and backed away from his opponent as the ninja's odd weapon drew blood.

_Damn it, I've got to remember I don't have chakra armor here!_ He thought to himself. _This guy is pretty good, but he shouldn't have been able to draw blood against me._

The nuke-nin paused to lick the blood off his weapon, proving he was either a psycho or really desperate to look scary. Naruto didn't know a thing about him, other than his name, and that was only because Hidan had introduced himself.

Kakuzu was enough of an opponent to keep anyone busy, throwing out a constant barrage of massive elemental attacks that forced Naruto to keep his clones dispersed and still picked them off regularly. When Naruto tried to counter with his own Spiral Wind Cannon the legendary ninja demonstrated that offensive jutsu can also be used as a defense, meeting each wind blast with an equally massive water jet that dispersed the force of the attack.

If he'd seriously been trying to win there were any number of other tactics Naruto might have tried, but he had orders to the contrary. So he just faded back into the swarm of clones, using a henge to disguise his injury while he probed their defenses. Maybe he could lure them into revealing more of their abilities?

Kakuzu responded to a barrage of shuriken by surrounding himself with a vortex of wind, which looked a lot like Naruto's own defense against ranged attacks. Hidan ignored them in favor of drawing some kind of seal on the ground in blood, and took a dozen or so hits in the process. After a moment the shuriken fell to the ground, leaving behind wounds that immediately began to close.

_Interesting,_ Naruto thought. _That looks a lot like my regeneration bloodline. I owner if we're related somehow?_

Then Hidan finished his seal, and casually cut his own throat.

A second later Naruto fell to his knees, desperately pushing chakra to his neck to heal the bloody wound that had suddenly appeared there. Hidan laughed.

"See? I told you I'd send you to Jashin!" He cried, and stabbed himself in the heart. Again the injury transferred to Naruto, and he realized with a sinking feeling that he had no idea how to defend against this attack. Then one of Kakuzu's elemental firestorms rolled over him, and he died.

Most of the shadow clones on the battlefield immediately followed, since he'd kept them in his link group to allow for easy chakra sharing. Hidan cheered, and did an undignified little victory dance. Kakuzu took a careful look around the battlefield, and sent a mud clone to check the body.

"Hey Hidan, this isn't a clone," he pointed out a moment later. "You'd better hope you didn't just kill him for real, or our leader is going to be pissed."

The religious fanatic shrugged. "Nah, his bird scouts are still up there watching us, see? I think he's just got more than one body, like Pein."

Kakuzu grunted and called back his remaining four elemental hearts. His sewn-together skin bulged and heaved disturbingly as they settled back into place inside him, but his partner paid no mind. Instead he heaved Naruto's body up against an upthrust boulder, and impaled it through the heart with the shaft of his odd weapon.

"Oh, crap," Kakuzu complained. "Why are you bothering with that if he's not really dead? We need to catch that girl before she gets away with the Nibi."

"He might have a soul for each body," Hidan explained. "It's a pain in the ass, but I have to finish the sacrifice just in case."

"Great. Just great. Fine, catch up when you're done. I'm not letting the target get away after all this."

Hidan nodded, and began collecting blood for the final step of his ritual. Kakuzu shook his head in disgust, and body flickered away.

Three miles to the south the team of clones carrying Yugito to safety exchanged an alarmed look.

"Crap," the leader complained. "None of us have the chakra to fight those guys. If they catch up with us they'll kill Yugito for sure."

"What do we do?" One of the others asked. He was just a wind clone, and they tended to be light on brains.

"Diversions," the leader answered, and turned to the team's other solid clone. "You drop back and start throwing out clone teams to set up traps and ambushes along our trail. I'll whip up some decoy clones and send them off to lay false trails. Hopefully that'll keep them busy until we can get reinforcements."

"Yeah, and hopefully whatever that technique was won't work on a different flesh clone without a new blood sample," the other clone replied. "Alright, you've got it. I'm going to keep my group linked so we can share chakra, so I'll send a relay clone with you. If he poofs out you'll know they've got another way to take out a whole link group."

"Right. Ok guys, let's pick up the pace."

-oOoOo-

Another detonation sent the Kazekage's palace collapsing into ruin, and Deidara frowned. The fact that his first clone had nearly beaten Gaara was a surprise, but not too much of one. The sand user was already at a disadvantage against the self-proclaimed artist of the ephemeral's explosive techniques, and his determination to protect his village worked against him as well. But the rest of the battle was just…pathetic.

"Kunai and shuriken against my creations?" The blond nuke-nin shook his head in disgust. "Puppets and illusions and basic wind techniques? I might as well be raiding some minor village in the boonies."

Of course, what really irritated him was the fact that his real opponent hadn't bothered to show up. He and Gaara were supposed to be friends for some weird reason, so it had seemed obvious he'd have clones in Suna ready to help fend off an attack.

Apparently not.

"Maybe he hasn't figured out what we're after yet?" Deidara mused to himself. "Yeah, that makes sense. He can't have clones everywhere, and he doesn't know we need the one-tail first. He must be covering Konoha, and maybe some other allies that have stuff he thinks we might want. Too bad for him these losers in Suna were just putting on an act."

At that moment some nameless assassin finally managed to sneak up on one of Deidara's clones, something the best experts in the village had been failing at for the last twenty minutes. Unfortunately for him, taking the clone's head off with a wind-enhanced garrote wasn't the smartest of moves. The clay puppet immediately detonated, setting off the swarm of clay birds it had been releasing and destroying a dozen storage scrolls full of other explosive constructs. All of which were promptly dumped out of subspace into the heart of the blast, and cooked off in turn. The resulting fireball engulfed a third of the village, leveling even the sturdiest structures and killing hundreds of ninja. It dimmed slightly as it rose into the air, producing a distinctive mushroom-shaped cloud that was seen thirty miles away.

Gaara was so horrified he failed to notice the tiny clay insects burrowing through his shell of sand until it was too late.

"Well, that's that," Deidara said smugly. "No sense hanging around here when the job's done, yeah? But these guys saw a lot of my good stuff, and we can't have them carrying tales."

He unsealed a giant bird and took to the air, easily dodging the scattered fire from the remaining defenders on the ground as he climbed out of range. A thousand feet up he retrieved Gaara's unconscious form from his clone, and turned his bird west.

Behind him his remaining three clones methodically dropped their remaining ordinance on the remains of what was once a major ninja village, and detonated themselves one by one.

-oOoOo-

The strange puppet's hand rotated oddly, exposing a nozzle that spat out a jet of pressurized water so intense it cut right through the clone's chakra shield and perforated the stone wall behind him. Sasori slashed his arm wildly, cutting a second clone in half and neatly bisecting the one wing of the palace that had so far escaped destruction. It promptly collapsed into rubble, and the remaining six Naruto clones all frowned in unison.

"You really don't care how many bystanders you kill, do you?" One of them complained. "You know, I was trying to keep this neat enough to leave something standing when we're done."

Sasori cackled. "That's your weakness, boy! You care about these insects. You let them hold you back, and endanger yourself for them. That's going to get you killed."

Yet another puppet popped out of the surrounding rubble at that moment, holding a terrified young girl in its arms. The Sasori-puppet grinned hideously. "You see?" It said. "Dispel your clones now, or the girl-"

One of the puppet's bladed fingers pricked the girl's skin, and she erupted into a massive fireball that reduced half the remaining puppets to scrap and shrouded the ruins in dust. Naruto smirked.

"Yeah, I can see I'm in real trouble here," he snarked. "What, you think I've never had anyone try that one on me? I've had clones replacing bystanders all over this place since the first time you blew a wall down."

Then his expression darkened. "But you just crossed the moral event horizon, buddy. You don't get to murder little girls in front of me and then walk away. You're going down."

"You should spend more time fighting instead of talking, boy," Sasori retorted as another puppet rose into the air beside him. This one had wings of what looked like iron, and a cloud of something…iron particles?...gathered in the air around it in a manner eerily reminiscent of Gaara's sand techniques.

"Now I've got my two most powerful puppets in play. I've never had to do this before, but no one can stand up to the Iron Sand and my Bound Elements at the same time. Prepare to urk!"

The psychotic nuke-nin's threats were interrupted by a petite fist impacting his back with enough force to flatten a bank vault. The puppet blew apart in a crash of thunder, the twisted bits of wreckage flying high into the air before raining down over the ruins of the Daimyo's palace. The few puppets that were still moving clattered to the ground, followed a moment later by the cloud of iron particles.

"Hell yeah, baby!" Sakura crowed. "Take that, you psycho! Cloaking armor plus invisibility genjutsu plus Tsunade-strength equals good night, asshole!"

Naruto chuckled at her enthusiasm. "Good shot, Tanuki!" He called. "I take it that's where the chakra threads were coming from?"

"That's right," the kunoichi confirmed smugly. "I'm surprised you couldn't see them yourself, but I guess all that medic-nin training was good for something. I traced them all back to right…there…ew, what the heck is that?"

Naruto followed her gaze to an odd cylinder that had flown free of the wreckage. Several fronds of pink tissue stuck out from the object, and something that looked suspiciously like blood leaked from a long crack in its surface.

"I'm not sure," he replied thoughtfully. "You think maybe he stuck his brain in there? He did say something about turning himself into a puppet, didn't he?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right. I can see chakra threads reaching out from it, like he's trying to find a fresh puppet to control."

"Not this time." One of Naruto's clones casually cut the capsule in half with a wind blade, exposing a center filled with organic goop. One fireball later there was nothing left but ash.

"One down, eight to go," Sakura commented.

"Yeah. Ok, let's find Ghost and make sure she got out with the priestess." Naruto began, but the clatter of several hundred pairs of boots interrupted him. Dozens of armored men emerged from the ruins around them with pikes and katana at the ready, while a hundred or more crossbowmen took aim from amid the devastation.

"Halt in the name of the Daimyo!" One of them shouted. "Lay down your arms and surrender at once, or we'll cut you down where you stand."

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Naruto groaned in disbelief. "Do these guys have a death wish or something?"

"There are a lot of them, Dragon," Sakura pointed out. "I'm not sure we can take them without killing them all, and I don't think sensei would be too happy about that."

"Last chance, intruders!" The voice came again, as more troops advanced on their position. "Three…two…"

"Yeah, good point," Naruto conceded. "Ok, flight mode. Hurricane Vortex!"

Half of the waiting crossbowmen loosed their bolts the instant he formed the first seal, but the projectiles were barely halfway to their targets before they were batted out of the air by the massive whirlwind that suddenly surrounded the Konoha ninja. They leapt into the air an instant later, blue wings of chakra unfolding from their backs as they rapidly gained altitude. They were out of range before the second volley could fire, and the commander of the Daimyo's personal guard clenched his fists in frustration as the dwindling shapes vanished into the darkness.

"Damn it!" He shouted. "Where the hell are our ninja? You, find me some messengers. I want notice of this atrocity sent out to every lord in the land before dawn. Those were Konoha nin, and this is an act of war!"

-oOoOo-

Team Orange gathered on a hilltop ten miles south of the palace. Or rather, the smoldering ruins where the palace had once stood.

Hinata cocked her head as her teammates landed, and asked, "Trying to beat Oni's record, Tanuki? I thought you were against giant smoking craters."

"It's not my fault!" Sakura protested. "Besides, Sasori and Dragon did most of the damage. All I did was smash a few puppets."

"…and a few dozen guardsmen, and a couple of genin teams, and I remember something about exploding tags too." Naruto countered. "Sorry Tanuki, as leader of Team Orange I'm going to have to officially say you're not the subtle type. But that's ok, some missions really need a ninja who can smash anything."

"Just not this one," Hinata teased. "Dragon, I'd like to introduce Shion, high priestess of Demon country. Shion, this is my team leader Dragon, and my teammate Tanuki."

Shion was uncomfortably aware of her scruffy appearance, dressed in nothing but a baggy shirt that didn't quite reach her waist and loose pants that didn't cover her calves. Ghost had been kind to offer her clothes, but the ninja girl was nearly six inches shorter that she was. For a moment Shion was afraid these other ninja would mistake her for an imposter the way the Demon Country nin had, and leave her here alone.

But their leader simply nodded in greeting, as if he were perfectly accustomed to such situations. "Good to see you in one piece, Shion. Don't worry, you'll be safe as long as you're with us."

"Having seen Ghost fight, I can believe that," Shion answered. "But we've no time for pleasantries. Moryo is perilously close to achieving freedom, and I don't know if I'll be strong enough to seal him if his body and soul are reunited."

"Yeah, the Kyuubi told me about that," the blond ninja confirmed. "We've got orders to get you to his body's tomb ASAP, and there's at least one more Konoha team headed there now. You need anything from here before we get going?"

Shion suppressed a gasp as she realized who she was talking to. "You are…the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki?" She asked cautiously.

"Um, yeah," he answered nervously. "How'd you know? Oh, wait, priestess powers. I guess you can sense the furry bastard, huh?"

"Something like that," she temporized. "May I see your face?" It wasn't strictly necessary, but her visions were often clearer when she could look the subject in the eye.

"Huh? Oh, sure," he said as he removed his mask. "Everyone knows who I am anyway. The masks are mostly for the girls. Naruto Uzumaki, at your service."

She met his blue-eyed gaze with her own, and the vision she'd been reaching for slammed into her like a typhoon. A fire-lit cave, a raging storm outside, her own naked form writhing in ecstasy beneath this handsome stranger as he plundered her virtue with savage intensity. Her blissful expression afterwards, as he held her close and gently stroked her hair. The honest affection in his eyes the next day, as they packed to move on. Yes. Oh, sweet kami, yes! For the first time since she'd made her bargain with the Kyuubi, the twisted knot of fear in her belly began to loosen. This, she could live with.

But beyond that, where there should have been a clear path to some destined fate, there was only a whirling maelstrom of possibilities. She sampled them as best she could, and gasped in shock.

_…a show trial in Demon country with that warmongering brother of the Daimyo presiding, and her own neck in a noose the next dawn._

_…a safe house in Konoha with a scant handful of guards, who did her no good at all when some invisible threat crushed the whole building flat._

_…a life spent in hiding, fleeing alone across the world, until one night an assassin's blade finally found her._

_…a few weeks of hardship and danger at Naruto's side, until a man in dark robes marked with red clouds killed her._

_…a desperate move to pressure the blond ninja into marriage, harsh words from several hard-eyed kunoichi, and Ghost standing over her lifeless body._

Shion pulled away in fright. Any path that led to that outcome was not a road she wanted to travel. There must be a better way. So far this vision had been far more revealing than any she'd had before, but it wasn't helping. There must be some way to survive, to win through the dangers surrounding her and find a life worth living again. She focused her will, and dove deep into the chaos of the future…

_…the sigil was the most immense example of the sealer's art she'd ever seen, a complex weave of blue and gold fire stretching across a thousand feet of barren rock, blazing with the glow of enough chakra to devastate a continent. A woman who could have been Shion's twin stood at one of the sigil's five anchor points, floating six inches off the ground in a golden column of holy power that rose to pierce the heavens. But she had a halo, and wings, and on her forehead was the golden starburst of the Children of Amaterasu, a kami tribe the Kyuubi had hunted to extinction half a millenium years ago. Shion frowned in confusion. Was there a survivor of the Children? Was she destined to become their servant, or perhaps even an avatar?_

_To her left, at the head of the circle, stood an older version of Dragon. The blazing aura of blue chakra that surrounded him made her own column of light look feeble by comparison, and the endless series of hand seals he was forming made it clear he was the leader of this vast ritual. To her right, at the next anchor point, stood a kunoichi with long blonde hair whose aura took the shape of a two-tailed cat._

_The other two anchor points were hidden from her view by the malevolent flames of the Kyuubi, whose titanic form filled the center of the diagram. His nine tails lashed impatiently, but his flames were tightly leashed. Whatever this ceremony was intended to accomplish, he obviously didn't care to oppose it._

_Then the demon fox turned, and fixed his burning gaze on Shion._

_"That's right, girl," he growled. "If you want to live, you have to help the brat send me home. Every other path leads to your destruction."_

_Shion hid her shock at being addressed by a vision of the future. It was the Kyuubi, after all. Who knew what lost powers the foreign demon god might have?_

_"So I see," she conceded. "But how will I live to reach this point? I'm not a ninja, or a demon god, and every path I can see is filled with danger."_

_"I already told you that, you silly little twit. Attach yourself to the brat, make him want to protect you, and let him make you stronger just like he does with everyone else. He won't let you die. Of course, if you had any brains you'd tell him about your visions too."_

_"What would be the point?" Shion protested. "Once the future is set, no one can change it."_

_The fox laughed. "Idiot. Fine, play helpless mortal if that's what you want. The brat will save you, and I kind of like how his worshipper turns out. Just don't die before you send me home, or I'm going to eat you and your mother and your whole pathetic line of whiny little fools. Now go. You have work to do, and you can't do it here."_

The vision ended, and Shion found herself in Dragon's arms.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked as he steadied her. "You looked like you were about to pass out there. Did these guys do something to you?"

She shook her head. "No," she replied unsteadily. "I…have visions. Of the future."

She paused, dreading the inevitable response. Either he wouldn't believe her, or he'd want her to predict his future. He'd probably be angry when it turned out to be bleak. Powerful men always wanted to hear that they'd triumph in the end, but that was seldom their fate.

But he just nodded. "I see. Anything I should know about?" He asked matter-of-factly.

It was so unexpected, she was startled into giving an equally straightforward reply. "The Kyuubi is quite insistent about being sent home. But it seems to be able to influence visions that it appears in, so I'm not sure they can be trusted."

He nodded again. "Fair enough. Fuzz-butt can be kind of sneaky sometimes. Well, one problem at a time. Let's go kick this Moryo guy's butt, and then we'll figure out how to handle the fox."

"It's going to be hard to go anywhere with her stuck to you like that," Tanuki commented archly.

Shion abruptly realized that she was still draped against the blond ninja's muscular chest, and blushed. It was terribly improper, but it felt so good it was hard to pull away. She was definitely looking forward to fulfilling the first part of that vision.

Naruto chuckled as he replaced his mask. "Jealous, Tanuki? I thought you were still pining for emo-boy."

"Maybe she's coming to her senses?" Ghost put in. "I'd better take the first turn carrying Shion, then. Wouldn't want her having a jealousy attack at 2,000 feet."

"Hey!" Tanuki objected. "It's not like that! I just…well…oh, never mind. Come on, let's get going before the guards catch up with us."

Shion expected to be terrified when they went airborne, but instead she found it didn't bother her at all. She nestled comfortably in Ghost's arms for long minutes as they climbed into the dark sky, marveling at both the spectacular view and the smaller girl's strength. The first rays of dawn were just beginning to touch the eastern sky when the quiet kunoichi finally spoke again.

"What did you see, when you first saw me?"

The soft question caught her off guard. Shion took another look at the ground, far below, and decided that 'you're going to die protecting me' wasn't a terribly smart way to answer. But she'd had plenty of practice at this.

"I saw your death," she answered regretfully. "I'm sorry, that's usually what I see."

"How?"

There wasn't any easy way to put it. "You're on a mission, for Team Orange. A man named Kanzai tries to interfere, and activates the seal on your forehead. I didn't see anything that would give me a date, but…I had the impression you were returning from this mission."

"I see." Ghost sighed, a soft sound that was nearly lost in the rush of wind around them. "Are you ever wrong?"

"Not so far," Shion admitted. "I'm sorry, Ghost. Believe me, if I had the power to change the future I'd save you. I owe you my life. But when a vision strikes me like that it always comes to pass, no matter what we do to avoid it."

"Then I'll have to make the most of the time I have left."


	10. Beginnings

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto.

**AN:** If you like my fanfiction, check out my original stories over on fictionpress dot com.

-oOoOo-

Anko eyed the sentries around the prison thoughtfully.

They were actually Naruto's clones, of course. The ordinary men who'd been the facility's only defenders would be little help against what was coming, so they had retreated inside the little fort. She would have preferred to send them away entirely, but the enemy would probably intercept them before they could escape. Better to keep them here, and keep an eye on them.

Naruto's clones had replaced much of the wildlife in the area as well, so there was little chance of anything sneaking up on them. There also wasn't much chance of help arriving except by air, so for once Anko had been free to fully indulge her love of booby traps.

"Think you used enough exploding tags?" The snake wrapped around her neck asked.

"Nope," she replied cheerfully. "But I'm out, so that'll have to do. How's the real you doing?"

"Sakura just got Sasori," the henged clone replied. "Hinata's got the priestess, so they should be on their way soon. Oh, and Gai's team will be here in a couple of hours."

"That's good. He's a lot better than me for smashing statues. Have I told you how cool this instant communication stuff is? If we'd had this in the last war we would have won, hands down."

"I just wish the rest of the news was better," the snake grumbled. "I can't believe Deidara took out Suna. If my clone looses him I don't know how we'll rescue Gaara."

Anko frowned. "Yeah. I hate to say it, but I think Tsunade screwed up on that one. What about the cat girl? You gonna be able to get her away from those Akatsuki guys?"

The snake was silent for a long moment.

"I think I'm going to need your help," it finally admitted. "But... this won't exactly be breaking orders, but it's definitely bending them."

"I'm with you, boss," she replied easily. "Just tell me what you need."

"Well, I don't know if Hidan's technique has worn off yet or not, so sending another blood clone up there would be stupid. But I've got a spare one I can summon here to guard the prison, while you fly up to rescue Yugito..."

"I get to be the hero and save the girl? Careful, she might end up falling for me instead of you."

They both laughed. Then more Naruto clones appeared, and began laying out a summoning array.

"You know, I'm not happy about sending you after these guys with so little support," one of the clones said after a minute. "Hidan seems to be a one-trick pony, but that Kakuzu guy is bad news. If he catches you it's going to get ugly."

"I can't count on flying away from a guy with that kind of air ninjutsu," Anko pointed out seriously. "If he catches me I'll have to use the seal. Think you can put my brain back together if I lose it this time?"

"Do I look like a Yamanaka to you? Sorry, I'd hoped to have a fix for you by now but that thing is a bitch to tamper with. The only way we've found to even modify the thing would be for me to steal ownership of it."

Anko stared at him. He hung his head sheepishly. "Yeah, I know, it isn't a real solution. We're still working on it, but-"

"If you do, can you fix it?" She interrupted.

Naruto hesitated. "Well, I'd be able to add things to it, but not take stuff out. I could put a governor on the feedback loop to keep the emotions from getting too intense, but that would also limit the power you get out of it. That sick 'whisper temptation in your dreams thing is the same way. I can't just rip it out, but I could slip in a filter on the emotion stream it uses as an input. But the torture functions would still be there, and I don't see a way to turn off that loyalty thing you've been fighting off all these years."

"It's not as stubborn as I am," she replied smugly. "So let me get this straight. You can make it so I don't have to worry about my head exploding if I use the seal too much, and maybe make my homicidal nymphomania thing a little less homicidal. You can make my nightmares just be about screwing and killing, instead of sick shit like dismembering people and eating them. And if you own the seal it'll be trying to make me loyal to you, which I am anyway, so for the first time since I was a kid I'll be able to relax and stop fighting it."

"What the hell are you waiting for, boss? Do it."

"I really wanted to find a way to remove it completely, Anko," Naruto protested. "It might be easier to live with this way, but I don't want you to have adman torture seal on your!"

"So don't use it," Anko replied. "Naruto, if you ever do find a way to remove it that's great, and I'll jump at the chance. Hell, I'd be fine even if that never happens. I can trust you not to screw me over, and I could live with a seal that just makes me horny and bloodthirsty. But the way it is now, I can't keep fighting it forever. Even I can see I'm getting worse. Please, Naruto."

Naruto studied her for a long moment. "You're serious about this, aren't you? Well, alright. Come on, we'll use one of those big rooms in the basement to set up the seal array. I don't have enough chakra here to actually power it up, but my blood clone can take care of that when he gets here. We'll have you ready to go in half an hour."

"Trust me, lover, I'm all ready to go," Anko purred. "Slipping my leash like this is worth major bonus points, you know. When this is over I'm going to owe you... fuck... I don't even know where to start. How do I pay you back for giving me back my life?"

"Knowing you, I'm sure you'll come up with something interesting," Naruto chuckled. "Just make sure you come back in one piece, alright?"

-oOoOo-

"You sure you have to go now?" Jiraiya asked amiably. "There's a kunoichi class doing final exams tomorrow, you know. Mai's been asking around for more assistants."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'm kind of busy right now, old lech. Besides, any training the girls could do without the customers noticing probably isn't something I'd want to help with."

The pair were walking through the gardens near the back of the sprawling Prancing Kitten complex, headed for an exit whose existence was known only to the staff and a few allied ninja. They passed through the hedge that divided the public part of the estate from the private clan compound of the secretive kunoichi who ran the resort, both ignoring the sophisticated genjutsu that masked the entrance. There were no guards, but no doubt the whole area was covered by detection seals or some other form of discrete surveillance.

Jiraiya chuckled. "Oh, they've got a training camp up in the hills for combat training. You should visit sometime. Watching thirty infiltration types practice taijutsu is almost as good as helping with their hentaijutsu training. But the kunoichi classes are always looking for assistants who can be discreet and actually take some work to seduce. The girls keep asking when my apprentice is going to start helping out."

"Yeah, sure they are."

"No, seriously," Jiraiya went on. "This is an important alliance, Naruto. The Kittens are proud of their skills, and they're going to get their feelings hurt if you keep this up. You could put them off when you were still in training yourself, but now that you're leading an ANBU team and fighting S-rank nin that doesn't hold water anymore. Pretty soon they're going to decide you don't think they're good enough to spar with. Or worse, that you look down on them because of their specialization."

A gaggle of eleven year old girls strolled past, each struggling to maintain a smooth gait and serene expression while levitating a leaf over her nose.

"Of course I don't look down on them," Naruto insisted as they passed. "If anything it's the opposite. The way my chakra is, I'd be afraid of accidentally hurting anyone who wasn't at least chuunin level. Besides, I'm not exactly single anymore. I guess Anko wouldn't care, but I'm not sure how Hinata would take it."

"Trust me, Naruto. She's a Hyuuga. They've been ninja so long it's seeped into their blood. Not only would she not bat an eye, she'd tell you the same thing I did about maintaining alliances. Just because she hasn't been through infiltration training herself doesn't mean she hasn't been drilled on the value of those who have."

Naruto stopped. "Um, what? You're kidding, right? Konoha doesn't train that kind of kunoichi."

"Heh. That's what Tsunade thinks," Jiraiya snickered. "Of course we do, Naruto. The 'Special Kunoichi Group' goes all the way back to the founding of Konoha, and the major clans always make sure they have family members in key positions. We just have a firm rule that no one asks which kunoichi are members, and no one talks about their missions in public. Everyone knows Tsunade hates that kind of thing, so when she took the hat they just went a little further underground than usual."

"Huh. That's not right," Naruto objected. "Making them hide it is like... like... it's like spitting on a guy that just took a kunai for you."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Yeah, I'm with you. Just remember that, if you ever do take over."

The path took them around a nondescript building, and through another stretch of garden that was divided into small semi-private nooks and clearings. In one of them a pair of pretty young kunoichi sat on a stone bench practicing kissing techniques under the watchful gaze of a slightly older blonde.

Jiraiya grinned, and cocked an eyebrow. Naruto rolled his eyes again, but this time he was smiling.

"No, no, you're being too hesitant Izumi!" The blonde girl interrupted. "Look, Dancing Butterfly is nice if you're playing hard to get, but you'll never pass the aggressor half of the exam that way. You've got to sweep the target off her feet, like this!"

With that she bent over the younger girl and pulled her up into a kiss. The blonde's technique was quite good - one hand tangled in her target's hair, drawing her in and controlling the kiss while the other swept down her slender body to caress a series of pressure points with exquisitely controlled pulses of chakra. Any resistance her target might have mustered dissolved in an instant, and she gave a cute little moan and melted into the older girl's arms.

Naruto was too startled to fully appreciate the view, because he'd recognized the voice.

"Ino?"

"Hmm?" The blonde girl came up for air, and looked around. "What is it? I've got tutoring for another hour, so you boys will have to... wait, Naruto?"

The Yamanaka clan heir released her victim and leaped back with a start of embarrassment. "Um, I... ah... wait, what are you doing here?"

Somehow, Naruto managed not to gape at her. "I was consulting with my sensei here," he replied, pointing at Jiraiya. "I'd ask you the same thing, but I think I get the idea. Joint training, huh?"

"Um, yeah," Ino blushed prettily. "Please don't tell anyone. Sakura would flip, and I'm sure I'd never hear the end of it from Kiba."

The two younger girls giggled.

"Don't be silly, sempai," one of them said. "Naruto is Jiraiya-sama's apprentice. He's practically one of us."

"Yeah. Maybe you'd like to help us practice, Naruto?" The other one added. "I'm sure Ino would enjoy training with an old friend."

Naruto chuckled. "Sorry, girls, maybe next time. I'm on my way to beat down a demon god, so I'm going to need to be at full strength. But they're right, Ino. I think it's stupid that you girls have to hide your training, but as long as you do there's no way I'd ever give you away."

Ino sighed in relief. "Thank you, Naruto. You know, I never would have guessed you were involved in this kind of thing."

"Same here," he replied. "I guess that's the trouble with public faces. If everyone hides what they're really like, there's no telling what you might miss. Infiltration and hentaijutsu aren't my main thing, but when you always have a few dozen shadow clones out training it's easy to branch out."

"Hmm." Ino eyed him speculatively for a moment, taking in the muscles stretching his tight shirt. "When this battle is over, maybe we should get together some time and... catch up."

Naruto ran his gaze over the lush curves his old acquaintance had developed since their last meeting. The Yamanaka heir was maturing into quite a beauty, and if she'd been training here long enough to be tutoring the junior kunoichi... bad thoughts! Bad! Down boy, she's Sakura's friend!

But it wouldn't do to be unfriendly.

"Maybe we should," he agreed. "But right now I've got some psychos to kill. See you."

The three kunoichi stood watching as Naruto and Jiraiya resumed their journey, and quickly vanished around a bend in the path.

"It's a good thing I'm not wearing panties, or I'd need new ones" Izumi giggled. "Kami, he's hot. Is that the guy you've had your eye on, Ino-sempai?"

"He likes you," her friend put in. "I bet he'll let you seduce him if you can get him alone. Oh, the whole clan is going to be jealous if you're the first to bag that stud!"

Ino laughed, and mussed their hair. "Scamps. No, Sasuke is the one I love. But Naruto's an old friend, and he's sure grown up nicely. Maybe I should try out that friends-with-benefits thing the instructors always talk about..."

-oOoOo-

The mood in Tsunade's office was considerably darker than at the Prancing Kitten. The papers that normally littered her desk had been shoved aside to make room for a map of the elemental countries, with little markers showing the positions of every Konoha team that might be strong enough to stand up to an S-rank opponent.

"Tell Kurenai to get a sitrep when she gets to Suna, then hold position and wait for reinforcements. Her team isn't up to fighting Deidara alone. Damn, what if they're using Gaara as bait? Naruto, are you in contact with Jiraiya?"

"Sure," Naruto answered. "He's only about thirty miles down the road from Konoha. You want him to help?"

Tsunade nodded firmly. "Yes. Ask him to rendezvous with the Suna team, and take charge of the mission. Their orders are to locate Gaara and ensure that Akatsuki doesn't get what they want. Rescue if possible, of course. Send some of your clones with them if you can, if they meet too many of these guys at once they may need a distraction to get away. How's your team doing?"

"We're airborne with Shion, but we may need to hole up and recover somewhere before we seal Moryo. After that big fight and all the flying around the girls are about wiped out, and recharging their suits is going to leave me a little short on chakra for fighting a demon god."

"I suppose that's the price you pay for such speed," Tsunade commented. "Well, it can't be helped. But Moryo's followers included several ninja clans, and that priestess is probably the only person alive that can seal him again. So rest if you have to, but don't let her out of your sight until she's done her job."

"You got it. Say, why is she the only one who can do it, anyway?"

Tsunade shrugged. "It's a bloodline. Her family's chakra nature repels and weakens demons. The question is, can you beat Moryo down enough to let her do it?"

"From the records, he doesn't sound that bad. It shouldn't be a problem as long as he doesn't get his body back. Oh, Kyuubi says he can just eat Moryo if we can't seal him for some reason."

Tsunade shook her head. "Let's not give the Devourer of Gods a chance to gain any more power, okay? For all we know it might let him break free."

-oOoOo-

At first Shion had been exhilarated by the flight. But it was a dark, dreary day, and she was a mere passenger in the arms of a kunoichi she was beginning to realize was quite weary. The glow of the crystal on Ghost's chest faded visibly as the hours passed, and the joy of seeing the world from so high began to fade into worry about when they were going to land. Not to mention where they'd be landing, and how long she'd have to prepare for a confrontation she knew she wasn't ready for. Her mother had never completed her training, and there were so many things she didn't understand. Could she really do this? Or would she be the first of her line to fail in her duty, and let an unstoppable monster loose upon the world?

"It must be hard." Ghost's comment interrupted her spiral of worry and self-doubt.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Seeing how people will die when you meet them," Ghost explained. "It must make it hard to deal with people. Does it happen with everyone?"

She shook her head. "No, I only see things that have become determined. Usually anything more than a week or two away is too uncertain for me to see, but that can change at any moment. It wouldn't be so bad, if there weren't so many people who think I somehow cause the things I see. I had to stop appearing at public ceremonies two years ago, because so many people were afraid of my 'evil eye' that it was affecting attendance."

"People can be foolish," Ghost replied, so softly the words were almost lost on the wind. "Will you go back, when this is done?"

"After what happened at the palace? No, I think that would be unwise. They'll think I'm an impostor, or a traitor. Either way I'd having nothing to look forward to there but a swift execution. I'll have to go elsewhere, although that will be delicate to arrange."

"I see." Ghost looked down at her, and Shion wondered what expression the kunoichi's mask concealed. "Is that why you plan to seduce Naruto?"

"What?" Shion gasped, her face turning red. "No! Where did you get that idea?"

"I also see things normal people do not. In particular, I saw how your body responded when you first saw him. You can't hide your feelings from me."

Shion's blush brightened, but she refused to be cowed so easily. "Well, what of it? Why should it matter to you?"

"I love him."

"Oh."

Shion was suddenly very much aware of the fact that the only thing between her and a thousand-foot drop onto hard stone was this girl's arms. She caught herself staring down at the ground, and licked her lips nervously.

Wait, but Ghost was going to die soon... oh, dear.

"I'm sorry," she offered lamely. "I didn't know. Please, believe that I'm not trying to hurt you. If circumstances allowed it I wouldn't interfere. But when I was locked in my cell beneath the palace the Kyuubi visited me in my visions, and offered to tell Naruto of my plight if I agreed to a bargain."

"The Kyuubi wanted you to sleep with Naruto?" Ghost asked incredulously. "Why? That doesn't sound like the sort of thing he'd care about."

"My virginity was his price," Shion insisted. "That, and my cooperation with Naruto's future attempts to send the monster home. My mother died before she completed my training, but given my bloodline it wouldn't surprise me if the act conveyed some blessing. Or perhaps the Kyuubi simply wanted to hurt you?"

"Doubtful. He thinks my devotion is cute," Ghost replied thoughtfully. "Is that the only reason?"

Shion fervently wished she could say yes. But lying to any ninja was said to be nearly impossible, let alone one with some sort of psychic powers.

"No. In my vision, I saw a bit of what it would be like to be with him. If you love him, you must have some idea what I mean. With all the trials I must face in the performance of my duty, I can't help but want a bit of that happiness for myself. But if he is yours, I won't intrude on your time together. I owe you more than I can repay, Ghost."

"I... can't be with him, Shion," the kunoichi replied sadly. "My father placed a Seven Virtues Chastity Seal on me when I was a child, and he isn't going to release it in the time I have left. So if you see a chance of finding happiness with him I won't stand in your way. All I ask is that you treat him well, and be tolerant of Anko."

"Who?"

"Our other teammate. She's an excellent kunoichi, and she's become quite close to him. But she's common-born, and the sort who doesn't feel worthy of becoming a lady. Some time ago I promised her that if Naruto and I ever found a way to be together she could remain with him as a retainer."

"Ah." Shion nodded in understanding. "Very well. Ordinarily I'd expect a prospective husband to wait a decent interval after the marriage before shopping for mistresses, but every rule has its exceptions. I don't know if things will actually work out with Naruto, but if they do I'll promise to see that your friend is taken care of. Just tell me I don't have to take Tanuki into consideration as well."

A minute passed in silence.

"Ghost, this is where you're supposed to reassure me that the idea is absurd."

The kunoichi sighed.

"I don't know what to think about her," she finally said. "She and Naruto have known each other since they were children. She was his first crush. I think she's grown fond of him, but doesn't want to admit the extent of her feelings even to herself. There are other complications as well, but it's a long story. I don't think she's good for him, but sometimes I wonder if I'm being unfair."

"Are you campaigning for sainthood?" Shion asked archly. "If they have that much history she's a threat, and I have no intention of ending up a second wife. Is there someone she's interested in now? Maybe we can get her married off before she comes to her senses."

Ghost chuckled. "Not likely. Sasuke went to Orochimaru two years ago, or at least that's the public story. The fact that she and Naruto both still consider him a teammate makes me wonder... oh, wait. Ah. Naruto says we're setting down soon. There's a storm front between here and our destination, so it's best to land and rest while it passes us."

Shion nodded. "Good. I was starting to worry about you."

-oOoOo-

The little party dropped into a steep ravine just as the first drops of rain began to fall. Naruto could have ignored it easily enough, but with their chakra shields inactive to conserve power Hinata and Sakura both shivered at the touch of cold water on what felt like bare skin. The skintight suits didn't include much insulation, and Shion's borrowed clothing would provide even less protection.

Naruto glanced at the dark clouds overhead, and sighed.

"It's not ideal, but this will have to do," he said. "I didn't see any sign of pursuit, so we'll to go to ground here. Girls, can either of you pick up anyone in the area?"

They both shook their heads, and he turned back to the wall of the ravine. A quick jutsu dug a pair of L-shaped burrows into the rock face, and he sent a swarm of clone into each to prepare the shelters. In a matter of minutes they transformed the rough surfaces to smooth stone covered with concealment seals, added doors and firepits and dim jutsu-powered lights, and rigged detection wards up and down the cliff face.

Sakura inspected the work briefly, and cocked her head.

"Two hides?" She asked. "Who goes where?"

"Tsunade says I can't let Shion out of my sight," Naruto explained. "But that doesn't mean you two can't have a little privacy. My stealth seals work better on small shelters anyway. I'm setting them up just like the ones back at the training camp."

He'd expected an objection, but to his surprise she simply nodded. "Ok. Can we afford to take eight hours?"

"Probably. I'm getting updates on the situation from Tsunade, so don't worry about it. Just get some rest, and I'll wake you up when it's time to go."

"Thanks," she replied gratefully. "I could sleep for a week."

The clones finished their work, and a few spread out to take up sentry positions while the rest dispersed themselves. Sakura drifted in to land in one of the shelters and stumbled inside, her hands already reaching for the storage scroll that held her camping gear. Hinata watched for a moment, and then set down in the other one and deposited Shion on the dry stone near the back.

She turned to find Naruto entering behind her, and paused for a moment.

"Naruto," she began uncertainly. "You've learned so many surprising things in your travels. Do you happen to know a resurrection technique?"

Naruto paused in the act of removing his mask, and looked at her in surprise. "Seriously? No, I'm afraid not. There's a body switch thing I've been working on lately, in case I can't get those seals off you. But I still haven't gotten it to work right, and that's with a living subject. I wouldn't know where to start with using it on a dead person. How come?"

"Just considering options for dealing with my family," Hinata replied calmly.

"Ah. I've got a couple of good angles for making sure Hanabi is out of the line of fire, if that's what you're worried about."

Hinata removed her mask, and smiled softly. "Thank you for your consideration, Naruto. I don't think it will come to that, but we shall see."

She brushed past him to the little shelter's entrance, and turned with her hand on the door.

"Shion, I expect this is the best chance you'll find. Naruto… for what it may be worth, I approve. Good night, to you both."

She turned and slipped out the door, closing it quickly behind her. Naruto scratched his head in puzzlement as he watched her go.

"Huh. Wonder what that was about? Shion, do you know what she m… whoa."

He stepped around the corner to find the priestess setting aside her damp clothing. Her long hair fell over the swells and valleys of her slender figure, concealing absolutely nothing. His eyes were drawn to pert young breasts draped in strands of gold, upturned pink nipples begging for attention.

She turned to find him staring at her, and favored him with a nervous smile. "I've no blankets of my own, so I hope you don't mind if I share yours. It's going to be a cold night."

"Um, yeah, of course," Naruto stammered, as he unsealed his bedroll and spread it across the floor. "I should have brought a spare. I, um, I guess you can have this, and I'll just-"

Shion silenced him with a finger pressed to his lips, and stepped closer until the hard points of her breasts nearly brushed his chest.

"It wouldn't do, to banish my brave protector to the cold stone floor. May I share your blankets with you, Naruto?"

Naruto was struck speechless for a long moment. She waited patiently, looking up at him with her eyes full of nervous anticipation, and even after his years in Jiraiya's company it took him a moment to realize what she was really asking. His first impulse was to find a graceful way to refuse, but then it occurred to him that this might be what Hinata had been referring to.

Shion's smile was becoming strained by then, so he put his arms around her reassuringly. She leaned into his embrace, and rested her cheek against his chest.

"Why?" He asked.

"Must it be complicated? Can't I simply wish to thank my savior, for rescuing me from a fate far worse than death?"

"Hinata was the one who rescued you," he observed.

"Oh, should I thank her instead?" Shion replied with a mischievous grin. "I don't think she'd be interested unless you were watching. And I suppose Tanuki struck the killing blow against that monstrous puppet master, but I doubt she'd appreciate what I have to offer."

Naruto choked. "Ah, no, I don't think that would go over very well."

Shion twined her arms about his neck and smiled up at him. "There, you see? Now kiss me, silly man."

He did.

Shion draped herself against him as his arms tightened their grip on her slender form, trapping her in an embrace she had no interest in escaping. His kiss was confident, unhurried and very thorough, leaving her breathless with anticipation.

"Is this what Hinata was talking about?" He asked with a smile. "I'm not sure I want to know how a topic like that came up on the flight out."

"Is that Ghost's name? She's an amazingly generous woman, and I'm going to be hard-pressed to find a way to repay her properly. But until you can free her from that seal… oh, bother. How does this suit of yours come off?"

Naruto chuckled. "Like this."

Shion gasped as the Naruto's chakra armor simply vanished, leaving her pressed against deliciously naked skin.

"Oh, my. That must come in handy when you're ravishing pretty young maidens," she smirked.

"It's a new design, but it seems to be working out so far," he replied suggestively.

She giggled. "I don't know. So far you've done more talking than ravishing. Do I need to explain what to do?"

"Wench!" He growled, and pulled her into another kiss. This one was more demanding than the last, and Shion briefly lost all awareness of anything else.

She made a startled sound when his hands went to her waist and effortlessly lifted her off the ground. He made to throw her over his shoulder, but she wrapped her long legs around his waist and held on tight.

She almost lost her nerve when she felt the hard bar of his erection pressed against her. She'd preserved her virginity for so many years, heeding her teachers' stern warnings about the unpredictable effects of carnal knowledge on her line's powers. But then she remembered her vision, and the fire bloomed again in her belly. She wriggled against him, reveling in the knowledge that she had caused such a reaction. Soon she'd have him, or he'd have her, and she'd find out what could cause that rapturous expression she'd seen on her own face.

"You're an impatient one," Naruto remarked. "That's fine, this works too."

He released his hold on his aura, and Shion gasped as his presence suddenly filled the tiny chamber with an overwhelming sense of power. It was a thoroughly masculine presence, at once protective and demanding, and she responded instantly. His hands lifted her hips, pressing his length against her suddenly-drenched opening. She eagerly helped him position her, aching for penetration. The head pressed into her and she groaned happily, amazed at the size of it. It pressed in, stretching her delightfully in ways she'd never imagined…

Naruto found himself pressed against an entirely unexpected barrier, and froze.

"Shion? Are you…?"

"Yes. Please don't stop, Naruto," Shion replied throatily. "Make me a woman."

He looked into her eyes, saw the sincere, uncomplicated longing there, and nodded. "Alright. But hold still for a sec."

His hands left her hips to form a quick series of seals before one open palm touched her belly. Shion was startled to realize it was a contraceptive technique, and even more startled to realize she hadn't even thought about that. She felt a moment of gratitude, before his hands flashed through a second series of seals. This time he touched her a bit lower, and the slight discomfort of his organ pressed against her hymen was gone.

"Best body shaping jutsu ever invented," Naruto observed, with a surprisingly gentle smile. "Now, you were saying?"

Shion pressed herself down, and gasped as another inch of him smoothly penetrated her virginal channel. There was no pain! But all the stories agreed a girl's first time was supposed to be painful. She'd never have resisted the temptation for so long otherwise.

"Ninja really do cheat at everything," she breathed. Then she looked up to meet his gaze, and smiled eagerly. "I was saying, make me a woman, my savior."

-oOoOo-

Two hours later Naruto lay in his bedroll with the semi-conscious priestess draped artlessly against his side. Occasionally she would emit a happy little sound and snuggle closer, and he would pause in his sorting of the day's memories touch her hair and smile down at her indulgently.

_She is a silly little thing, isn't she?_ The Kyuubi commented.

_I think I like her,_ Naruto replied. _Although I guess I'm kind of biased right now. She was pretty energetic for a virgin. But since when do you even notice 'monkeys' enough to have an opinion about how they act?_

_Ah, but she isn't a monkey. She's the last true daughter of the line of Amaterasu, and that makes her a celestial kami. She's too stupid to realize it, of course. But that's why her family has the power to seal little Moryo._

Naruto blinked in surprise. _Wait, what? You're telling me I just did it with a goddess?_

The Kyuubi gave a nasty laugh. _No, you just claimed the virgin blood of the world's last true goddess without reciting any of the proper litanies of dedication. I suppose you were too busy to notice her power flowing out with the blood? She'll never reach her potential now, and what power she does have will be bound to you. So she won't be able to back out when you call on her to help fulfill your promise to send me home, even though the spell is certain to kill her in this state. If I'm lucky her prissy little ancestors may even sacrifice themselves in a vain effort to save her._

_You know, there wasn't actually any blood, _Naruto observed mildly.

There was a long pause.

_I hate you,_ the Kyuubi growled. _You and your stupid little gestures of kindness. How do you keep doing that?_

_So, does this mean she doesn't get screwed over?_

The Kyuubi's grumbling was all the answer he needed. He raised a hand to gently stroke Shion's cheek. So soft. So fragile. So different from any of the kunoichi he knew. Theirs was the beauty of a finely honed blade, while Shion was a delicate hothouse flower. Although, he reflected, she probably wasn't as fragile as she seemed. Soft and feminine she might be, but there was a fire in her eyes he wasn't used to seeing in civilian girls.

The Kyuubi was still grumbling.

_Did you want something?_ He asked. _Or are you just trying to annoy me?_

_You have to break her seal, the Kyuubi explained, sounding resigned. Her idiot mother thought she was too weak to wield her powers properly, and bound them into that bell she wears. It feeds off her chakra to power the techniques it was imbued with, which might suffice against a foe as pathetic as Moryo. But she'll never be able to perform her part of my banishment like this. She probably won't even survive until then, since her mother's seal work isn't designed to protect her from ninja._

_Huh. Ok, that is important,_ Naruto admitted. _Of course, I'm not stupid enough to just break it myself because you said to, especially after that virgin blood stunt. I'll talk to her about it tomorrow._


	11. Transitions

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto. Obviously.

"I hate this rain," Hidan whined.

It was only a light drizzle, the fringes of a storm that stretched on for hundreds of miles to the west. Half the sky was overcast, and the rest covered by drifting patches of clouds too thin to fully obscure the moon. The ghostly half-light was perfect for ninja operations, and a little dampness was certainly no obstacle to a pair of S-rank ninja. But Hidan was always complaining about something.

Kakuzu eyed the trail impassively. "You're sure this is the right group? These damn decoys are everywhere."

"Yeah, I told you, once I get a taste of someone's blood I can follow them anywhere. The kitty-cat left plenty of it around, so it's no problem. We're getting close now. Hey, is it just me, or are the kid's clones getting weaker?"

"They are," Kakuzu agreed. "Wherever the real one is, apparently he can't replenish their chakra from here. That's probably why they didn't fly off with the girl in the first place - not enough chakra on hand to get anywhere."

_Which is a good thing,_ he thought. _I'm barely at half power myself, and Hidan's not going to be worth much now that Naruto knows his tricks. If the kid shows up for real things are going to get dicey._

Hidan nodded. "Good. Let's get this over with, so we can get someplace dry."

They pressed on through the increasingly broken terrain, leaping from tree to boulder to cliff-face at a pace few ninja could have matched. They'd learned to avoid the densest stands of trees after Naruto's first ambush attempt cost each of them a clone, but with Hidan's blood-tracking jutsu they had no need to actually follow their quarry's trail. They were gaining quickly now, and it was only a matter of time before they caught up.

Once they were safely past, a squirrel concealed in the underbrush vanished in a tiny puff of smoke. A mile up the trail the Naruto clone carrying Yugito paused for a moment and frowned.

"What's happening?" Yugito asked softly.

"Oh, you're awake," he replied. "That's good. I did what I could with your wounds, but I'm not that great at medical techniques. Do you have a regeneration bloodline, or is the Nibi healing you?"

"She's quite skilled at such things. But it's going to be at least a day before I can fight effectively, and I notice you didn't answer my question. I get the feeling this rescue isn't going as smoothly as you'd hoped."

Naruto shook his head. "No. I wasn't expecting that weird blood technique the religious nut was using. All I've got left out here is a bunch of shadow clones, and we don't have enough chakra between us to fight them. I was hoping we could lose them, but it looks like he can track you too."

"That doesn't sound promising. Who are you, anyway? You look just like the old bingo book pictures of the Yellow Flash, but you're too young to be him."

"The name's Uzumaki Naruto. I'm the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki, not that the fox is ever much help with anything. Look, don't worry too much. I'm out of contact right now, but I'm sure reinforcements are on the way. We just have to stay alive until they get here."

She sighed. "Yes, I suppose Konoha won't let its prize go lightly. What will you do with me, anyway? Extract the Nibi and force her into a container of your choosing? Or do you have a brainwashing technique to use on us?"

Naruto snorted. "What, you think Tsunade wants to start a war with Lightning? Please. I wasn't even authorized to get involved. I'm probably going to get chewed out for stepping in, instead of just following them to see what they did with you. But these Akatsuki guys are trying to collect all the bijuu, and you've seen how tough they are. We need to stick together if we're going to beat them. I figured saving your ass and then not handing you over to T&I would be a good way to prove I'm not scamming you."

There was an explosion in the distance behind them, followed by a flurry of ninjutsu.

"It doesn't sound like the 'saving my ass' part is working out very well," Yugito observed.

The clone hung his head sheepishly. "Man, these jerks are making me look bad. I hate being low on chakra."

The clones did their best, but barely half an hour later they found themselves at bay atop a barren mesa. There were only three left by then, and between them they barely had the strength for one good Rasengan.

Kakuzu and Hidan casually strolled up the path behind them, bickering with each other as usual. Normally the clones would have just retreated down the cliff face away from their pursuers, but there was a strange presence in the valley below. The smell of blood and the taint of black chakra hinted at a summon of some kind, and anything these two called up wasn't likely to be a pushover.

But it wasn't a coincidence they'd ended up in that spot.

"End of the line, kids," Kakuzu commented. "Hidan, you want to finish them?"

The towering ninja stepped forward with a nod. "Yeah, you just sit back and watch. This won't take long."

Six thousand feet above them, Anko deactivated her flight jutsu and switched her armor to stealth mode. Suppressing the urge to shriek like a kid on a roller coaster, she wrapped her camouflage cloak around herself and plummeted towards the earth.

She could just make out the specks of the clones fighting Hidan far below, outlined by the glow of a small grass fire ignited by their last exploding tag. They were sticking with taijutsu now, which was fairly useless against an enemy with who seemed to have limitless regeneration. Hidan's skill with his odd weapon was amazing, but Naruto's clones were fighting well above jounin level themselves. The three of them tag-teamed him quite effectively for the first few exchanges, landing several hits that healed almost instantly. Then Hidan managed to pop a clone with a tricky reverse blow from the butt of his weapon, and the remaining two found themselves outmatched. He fell on them in a flurry of blows, and in moments they were both dispelled.

Yugito dragged herself awkwardly to her feet, determined to sell her life as dearly as she could. But before Hidan could reach her a swarm of shuriken sailed silently down out of the sky.

Both Akatsuki sensed the attack at the last possible moment, and Kakuzu evaded with a frantic replacement. Hidan, long accustomed to being effectively invulnerable, simply batted the projectiles aside. Unfortunately for him Anko was using her new exploding shuriken.

The blast knocked him sprawling, bits of steel shrapnel tearing through his body. More importantly, it spread and ignited the hundred gallons of napalm sealed in each of the devices. By the time he hit the ground Hidan was covered head to toe in the sticky, gelatinous incendiary, and the area around him was a sea of flame. His belated attempt to leap away merely fanned the flames, and he went down screaming in agony.

Anko flared her suit's wings at the last possible moment, swooping over the inferno to land next to Yugito. Her hands were already forming seals, and as she touched down she spun in Kakuzu's direction and unleashed a Grand Fire Dragon. The snake clone wrapped around her neck threw a Grand Typhoon Breath at the same time, and the perfectly synchronized attacks merged into a firestorm that covered the entire hilltop.

"Covering team, go," she ordered, and two dozen Naruto clones popped into existence around her. Half of them immediately henged into copies of her and Yugito, while the rest began throwing out wide-area elemental attacks in Hidan's direction.

Anko turned to the battered jinchuuriki with a saucy grin. "Rescue team Oni, arriving! Need a lift, cutie?"

Yugito took in the lush curves revealed by her rescuer's skintight outfit, and found herself suppressing a blush. Damn, what a kunoichi!

"Yes. Please, get me the hell out of here before they come back."

"Sure thing, just sit tight for a sec. This is too good a chance to waste."

Anko darted into the field of burning napalm, her chakra shield flaring into visibility as it repelled the flame. Her sword flicked out, quick as a striking snake, and separated Hidan's head from his body. More flames burst into being along the length of the blade as she speared the severed head and raised it to point to the sky while her free hand formed a short series of seals.

"Plasma Lance!"

An inferno of concentrated flame erupted along the length of her sword, vaporizing Hidan's head in the process, before gushing out into a towering fountain of violet fire that was visible for miles.

"Still can't get the focus right," she muttered. "Ah, well. Let's see him regenerate that!"

A gigantic blast of cutting wind roared through the flames at her, only to be blocked by a similar technique from the snake around her neck. "Don't forget about Kakuzu," the Naruto clone reminded her.

"I know, I know," Anko replied as she returned to Yugito's side. "I wish we could stay and fight, but that's not the mission. We're out of here."

Anko swept the jinchuuriki off her feet to carry her bridal style, and summoned her wings. Yugito flung her arms around Anko's neck as they left the ground, surrounded by five pairs of clones doing the same thing. Three clone pairs launched themselves into the sky, while the rest stayed with them as Anko flung them off the cliff face and soared across the valley below.

A focused lightning jutsu blew one of the high-flying clone pairs out of the sky. The others retaliated with equally powerful air attacks, while the pair pacing the real kunoichi blanketed the valley in flames. Then they were across the valley, ducking over a ridge on the far side, rushing down the slope beyond faster than any ninja could run. Gradually the battlefield fell away behind them, and Anko cautiously gained altitude until they were well above the reach of any normal attack.

"Looks like he can't fly," Anko finally said. "Too bad. I bet I could take him."

"We can kill him once I've healed," Yugito replied fiercely. "I owe that bastard for what they did to my team."

Anko chuckled. "Aren't you a feisty one? Just rest up for now. The boss wants us to link up with him, so this is going to be a long flight. I'm sure Akatsuki will catch up with us in a few days, and you can have your rematch then."

-oOoOo-

Some hours later the Naruto in Konoha finally found himself alone, as a harried Shizune convinced Tsunade it was time to get some rest. The Slug Sannin had insisted on following Naruto's reports in real time since the start of the crisis, much to his growing irritation. Things would be so much easier if she'd just issue mission objectives and let him use his judgment, like a normal Kage.

Apparently there were downsides to instant communication.

She'd left strict orders to wake her if anything important happened, but as far as he was concerned nothing short of an attack on Konoha was going to qualify. He had work to do, now that she was safely out of the way.

Starting with a quiet foray into the ninja records office. He'd never cared about legal details before, but it looked like they could quickly become critical now. So he'd set two clones to working through the arcane filing system there the instant Tsunade left, searching out a folder he knew had to be buried somewhere among the endless shelves of documents. When they finally found it the thing turned out to be protected by a forest of security seals, but thanks to his apprenticeship under Jiraiya such things weren't much of an obstacle for him. Most of the protections were easily disarmed, and the one that might have actually given him pause was keyed to his own blood.

"So, the Uzumaki were a recognized ninja clan," he mused as he skimmed through the papers within. "From Whirlpool, huh? Wait, I'm related to _those_ Uzumakis? Cool. Let's see, survivors fled to Konoha after their village fell, looks like they got the usual deal for a strong clan. Recognition under the clan laws, a seat on the council as long as they have a jounin-level member to occupy it, and three acres of land inside the walls. Wow, that must be worth something. Looks like they had a lot of enemies, though. Most of them died on missions over the next few years, until they were down to just... Kushina."

"Mom."

He stared at the clan roster for a long moment, wondering what she'd been like. All he knew was her name, and the fact that she'd been a strong ninja. Getting even that much out of Jiraiya had been tough. But his own name was listed there below it. Her son, and the last living member of the Uzumaki clan.

He turned the page, and nearly dropped the file.

There was a birth certificate for one Uzumaki Naruto, son of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato.

"Holy crap," he breathed. "There's proof? I never thought I'd find anything official. But this should have been filed at the hospital, not in the clan records. Oh, right, I'm being stupid. The old man must have hidden it here, so no one would find out while I was a kid."

He smiled slowly. "This is exactly what I need. Heh. The old geezers are going to have a stroke when it all comes out. But I'll just keep that card in reserve. The Uzumaki name is all I need for now..."

-oOoOo-

In the deserts of Suna, the clones assigned to locate Deidara were having considerably less luck.

Naruto had refrained from infiltrating Suna partly out of respect for Gaara, and partly because he wasn't interested in stealing the puppet skills that seemed to be their major secret technique. Unfortunately that meant that his presence in the area had been limited to a couple of persistent clones tasked with general observation, neither of which had any great amount of chakra.

They'd called up a few bird clones to expand their coverage during the battle, but Deidara's retreat had been well screened. Between the clay clones over Suna and the swarms of exploding insects Deidara had left in his wake as he fled most of Naruto's clones had been destroyed within a mile of Suna. The one survivor lost sight of his dragon-like mount while evading a swarm of exploding birds, and spent hours fruitlessly searching the desert before its chakra ran out.

Reinforcements from Konoha had arrived not long after that, but tracking a flying enemy was virtually impossible. They didn't even know what direction he'd gone in, and given the speed of his mount he could be hundreds of miles away. Unless Deidara had gone to ground somewhere in Wind Country their odds of finding him in time were miniscule.

-oOoOo-

"That was quite an impressive rescue," Yugito commented. "Why haven't I seen you in the bingo books?"

Anko chuckled. "You have, cutie. I'm just wearing a new mask. Konoha formed Team Orange as a special anti-Akatsuki force just recently. Against guys like that we don't have the luxury of hiding how strong we are." Well, she certainly wasn't going to explain their tricks to a foreign ninja. Let the girl think Konoha had been keeping an S-rank combat team under wraps for a few years.

"Well, thank you," Yugito replied. She snuggled a little further into her rescuer's embrace, and sighed. She'd cheerfully commit a few war crimes for a figure like that. Too bad this 'Oni' was a Konoha nin.

"What happens to me now?" She asked reluctantly.

"You get to tag along while we put down a little demon god," Anko explained matter-of-factly. "We need to make sure Akatsuki doesn't catch you while you're recovering, and we can't divert anyone to get you home until Moryo is taken care of. I think the boss is hoping to talk you into helping out with Akatsuki, since they're after you too. But I'm pretty sure he'll have us escort you home if you're not interested."

"Really?" Yugito asked skeptically. "No extracting the Nibi? No brainwashing attempts? You'd just let me go?"

"Yeah, Naruto is like that. But watch your step, or you might end up another of his adoring fangirls," she teased.

"I think I'm more at risk from your hentaijutsu than his," Yugito confessed. "He has entirely the wrong equipment."

"Oh, so you're a sushi kind of girl, are you?" Anko replied lightly. "Must be a pain when you want to blow off steam in a civilian town. Anyway, we're on our way to link up with the rest of my team right now. Up to you if you want to help out with this Moryo thing, assuming it isn't over before you heal up…"

-oOoOo-

Naruto retrieved the fragile-seeming glass bell from his analysis array with a thoughtful look. An absent gesture caused the twelve interlocking circles of intricate sealwork to vanish, leaving the stone floor of the cave unmarked.

His female companions paused in their idle conversation, and cast curious gazes his way. When he didn't immediately speak Hinata and Shion settled in to wait, but Sakura was too impatient for that.

"Well?" she asked imperiously.

"This thing is a real piece of work," he replied slowly. "The seals are drawn in three dimensions, which is a pretty unusual style. There's some symbols I don't know, and some of the grammar is weird, but it's pretty clear what most of it does. Shion, your mom was a real artist with this stuff."

"So I have been told," Shion replied.

Naruto nodded, and handed the ornament back to her.

"Ok, first off, the reason you still have it is because it's really just a projection of your chakra. If anyone but you tries to break the bell it'll just reform wherever you are, and the same goes for stealing it. Maybe someone like Jiraiya could take it apart eventually, but it'd be a real project."

"Sure, but what does it do?" Sakura pressed.

"Lots of stuff. There's some defensive techniques built into it, with automatic triggers, but they're all keyed to respond to Moryo's chakra. There's some really funky stuff that I think is related to those visions, and a time-based technique that's probably S-rank."

"I know that one," Shion confirmed. "But mother said I'll die if I use it."

Naruto snorted in disgust. "It figures she'd say that. Shion, the main thing this bell does is keep you from accessing your chakra. There's a harmonic oscillation that'll interfere with any technique that takes more than five or six seals, and a governor that stops you from channeling more than a fraction of your power, and a genjutsu to keep you from even feeling what it does to you."

Shion gasped. "What? But why would mother do such a thing to me?"

"I'm not sure. There's a demon sealing technique built into the bell, so I guess you don't technically need to be free to seal Moryo with it. If your bloodline has instinctive abilities she might have been afraid you wouldn't be able to control them, especially if she knew she wasn't going to be around to train you. Doesn't seem like a good reason to put your kid under a seal her whole life, but..."

He trailed off at Shion's strangled gasp, and watched in bemusement as a storm of conflicting emotions played across the priestess' face.

"That's what the Kyuubi meant! I thought... but that means... but I... argh!"

"That does make more sense," Hinata observed, the faintest hint of a smirk adorning her lips.

"Do I even want to know?" Sakura asked.

"Doubtful," Hinata answered shortly.

Naruto frowned as he put it together. "Shion, was that why you...?"

"No!" Shion replied hastily. "I saw... things. A future I wanted, very much. But the Kyuubi must be laughing at my foolishness now."

"Actually, he's kinda pissed about it. There's some mystical business about virgin blood that could have been really bad if, well, if there's been any."

Shion's looked shocked. Hinata frowned in concern. Sakura just rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Naruto, you're getting to be as bad as your sensei. How many women can one man possibly need?"

"Naruto is at least three men," Hinata teased.

Naruto chuckled. "More like a dozen right now, plus a couple of girls. Don't worry, Tanuki, there's plenty of me to go around."

"Pervert. Clones are cheating." Sakura looked away with a sniff.

"Indeed. Naruto is a terrible lech, and you should stay far away from him," Shion put in. "More for me that way."

Naruto slipped an arm around her, and pulled her into a hug. "No worries, Shion, she's not competition. She's so stuck on Sasuke I'd think he'd used his sharingan on her, except she's been that way since before he had it."

Sakura bit her lip, suddenly glad that she was wearing her mask. Shion looked so happy curled up against Naruto, it was hard not to be jealous. That could have been her. Hell, it still could be. Naruto might pretend to be over her, but she knew better than that. She might have to share, but did that even matter the way Naruto used clones?

She stood abruptly, and turned to the door. "Hey, look at the time. It's almost dawn, and we've still got miles to go. We'd better get moving soon."

_I promised I'd wait for you, Sasuke. Kami, I never knew it would be so hard. Please, come back to me soon._

-oOoOo-

In an underground hideout six hundred miles away, morning found Sasuke returning to his chamber after completing another of Orochimaru's pointlessly brutal pre-dawn training exercises. He'd managed to disable a crowd of nearly a hundred thugs, bandits and missing nin without actually killing any of them, much to his teacher's amusement. Of course, they'd probably all die in the Snake Sannin's labs anyway, but at least he wouldn't be responsible. Better to concentrate on breakfast.

He automatically checked the area for intruders as he opened the door, ensuring that the space beyond was empty of potential assassins. But as he swept into the room and closed the door behind him, he felt a sudden burst of familiar chakra.

He whirled, to find a busty blonde bombshell in skimpy kunoichi garb reclining on his bed.

"Hey, Sasuke," she crooned. "Long time no see. Are you done pumping the snake freak for techniques yet? Your girls are missing you..."

"Naruto," he said flatly.

She giggled, and propped herself up on her arms in a pose that revealed a vast expanse of disturbingly convincing cleavage. "Are you sure, Sasuke? You have so many admirers, maybe you just forgot one?"

"Pervert. Change back, now."

She dropped the pose, and sat up with a grin. "Sorry, can't. I'm a blood clone, and the boss made me so this is really what I look like. I think you were right about Sakura, by the way. I've caught her checking me out a couple of times when I'm like this."

The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched.

"Told you," he pointed out. "I was just a beard. Ino's the one she was really after."

The female Naruto giggled again. "Nah, the way she freaks out I'm pretty sure she's repressing it. I still say she swings both ways and doesn't know it."

"Hnn. This better not be why you came."

"No, no, this is serious," Sasuke's visitor reassured him. "Things are about to come to a head. Akatsuki's making their move, and it looks like they're targeting all the bijuu. I've confirmed that Itachi is a member, so sooner or later he'll be coming after me or Gaara. Or maybe Yugito - she's got the two-tails in her, and it looks like she's joining up with us. You want in?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "How? I'm still a missing nin."

The kunoichi tapped her head. "Us clones can all talk to each other no matter where we are. Get your team together, and I'll tell you where to be. Unless you're ready to come in out of the cold?"

"Not yet," Sasuke replied after a long moment of silence. "Orochimaru's current body is failing. He'll make his move soon, and I will destroy him. Then I can put my own plans into motion."

"If you say so, bastard. Just don't wait too long. Right now they're still trying to figure out how to track the real me, but it won't take guys like that long to come up with something. We don't have time to play around with blind signal drops, so I'll leave you a more direct way to keep in touch."

With that the curvy blond formed a single seal, and vanished in a summoning exchange so tightly controlled it gave off only the faintest ripple of chakra. In her place was the bedraggled-looking peasant girl who'd been assigned to clean this part of the complex for the last few months.

Sasuke raised one eyebrow a fraction. "You think Orochimaru won't notice you replacing a servant?"

The girl blinked in confusion, and answered in her usual timid tone. "Replaced? Why, no, Sasuke-sama. I'm the real Yukari. I've been delivering your meals and doing your laundry for three months now, remember? No spicy foods or alcohol, nice crisp folds on all your clothes, and make sure I dust under the bed every day? I'm sorry I was so slow today, sir. Normally I'm finished before you get back from your morning training."

Sasuke's other eyebrow went up, and the girl grinned.

"I told you I was going to be a master infiltrator," she told him. "I can be anyone, anywhere, for real, and no one will ever know unless they've got a Yamanaka handy to read my mind. I'll be here when you're ready, Sasuke."

Then she gathered up a tray of dishes from his desk, and scurried off like the frightened servant he'd taken her for.

-oOoOo-

Hiashi's breakfast sat untouched on his desk as he brooded over past and present failures.

He'd tried to find an honorable path for the girl, despite the unfortunate circumstances of her birth. But she'd frustrated him at every turn, despite her apparent pliability. She seemed like such a sweet girl, so meek and self-effacing, with a generous heart that was always looking for a way to help others. The sort of person who could never lead the Hyuuga, even if the elders had been willing to give her that chance.

Just like her father.

Hiashi had thought it a moment of kindness. Hizashi had loved Miyu, and she had returned his affections, but the needs of the clan had doomed their fledgling relationship. Miyu was the senior daughter of one of the junior branches the clan, destined to wed the next clan head to renew their ties to the main branch. Hizashi was far too soft for such a position, and he knew it. In the end he'd been persuaded to step aside in favor of his twin, for the good of the clan. But Hiashi had been troubled by his brother's sacrifice, and in a moment of misguided kindness arranged for their impending marriages to take place on the same day.

The sealing arts the clan practiced were not entirely safe, and when circumstances allowed it was common to wait a week or so between removing the chastity seals of childhood and applying the fidelity seals of adulthood. It was a risk, but allowing the body time to adjust greatly reduced the chance of sterility or other serious side effects. The prospective bride and groom were always kept in isolation during this time, of course, but that meant little. Hizashi and Miyu had both been excellent ninja, while their honor guards were only genin…

After their marriage Miyu had come to his bed intact, as was proper. So he had studiously refrained from contemplating what might or might not have happened, in any stolen moments of privacy the star-crossed pair might have found. It was a small enough kindness, and if Miyu was perhaps a hair less dutiful than would be ideal it was no great burden. She knew her duty as well as he knew his, and time heals all wounds. He judged the matter closed, and put it out of his mind.

Until Hinata was born ten days too early.

Hiashi and Hizashi were identical twins. They shared the same blood type, the same DNA, the same chakra signature. There was no test that could confirm his terrible suspicion, and babies do sometimes arrive early. But Miyu had been a medic-nin of amazing ability, and certain specialized regeneration techniques were probably within her abilities. As the years passed, and the girl who should have been his heir grew to resemble his brother more with each passing day, his suspicion slowly turned to certainty.

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.

"Come."

Kanzai entered as silently as a ghost, and moved to stand before his desk. "I understand the clan has need of me?"

Hiashi suppressed a sigh. Despite the situation he'd tried to arrange an honorable ninja career for the girl. Let her serve the clan by serving Konoha, preferably somewhere far away. Hanabi showed great promise, and would no doubt advance to jounin in a few years. Then, with his daughter's position secure, he could arrange a suitable marriage for Hinata and allow her to retire from active duty.

That plan was no longer viable. Hinata's open defiance some weeks before had scandalized the clan, and set many to speculating as to the cause. Now she was defying his orders to consort with the hidden heir of the Uzumaki clan, whose mastery of the sealing arts might well have been enough to find a flaw in the Caged Bird Seal. A Hyuuga who bore that seal could never lead the clan, of course. But if the Uzumaki secrets were not truly lost… if Hinata suspected the truth… if she was canny enough to recruit the Kyuubi jinchuuriki's support, and meet with the elders behind his back…

The Hyuuga valued strength and cunning above all else, and suddenly Hinata's relentlessly timid persona seemed all too much like a mask. Hiashi had his own enemies among the elders. It was a chance he couldn't take.

"It is a delicate matter," he began slowly. "But of vital importance to the clan…"

-oOoOo-

The inevitable attack on Moryo's prison came an hour after dawn. An odd choice, but who knew how a demon god's mind worked? Perhaps there was some mystic reason for the timing. Perhaps it was merely an amateur attempt at double-think, to attack two hours later than the optimum pre-dawn period.

Or perhaps Moryo simply didn't think he could hide an army of slow-moving stone statues.

The vanguard of the host blundered mindlessly into Anko's maze of traps. Heavy stone statues of warriors fell into pits, were pinned under deadfalls or blown up by exploding tags, over and over all along the perimeter. But the constructs were strangely resistant to physical damage, and few of them were actually destroyed. The army shrugged off the casualties, and advanced.

The shadow clones on perimeter defense struck next, flashing in to strike their clumsy foes with weapons and carefully focused ninjutsu. But kunai, shuriken and even the blows of Naruto's clones had little effect, and expending a Rasengan on each statue was a losing proposition. There were thousands of the things, and their advance was relentless.

Gai surveyed the developing battle from the entrance to the prison and frowned. "Naruto, are you certain you wish to face all of these foes alone? Your youthful enthusiasm does you credit, but you shouldn't let it lure you into overconfidence."

Naruto shook his head. "Nah, I got this. Moryo is supposed to have a ninja clan working for him, so I need your team to make sure they don't sneak by while I'm busy taking out his army."

"Any how will you do that? Your clones don't seem to be faring well."

"Heh. They're just luring the main force down into the valley. Check out my latest army-killer technique."

High above the battlefield three clones circled in raven form, weaving a vast construct of air-natured chakra through the clouds between them. The clouds grew thicker as the wind picked up, sucking in moisture, greedily absorbing the nature chakra provided by another pair of clones hidden well away from the battlefield. A whirlwind fifteen hundred feet across gradually formed, assuming a distinctive funnel shape as the winds driving it grew in strength.

As the chakra-laced winds approach three hundred miles per hour the clones changed the pattern of their weaving, and the funnel began to descend.

It touched down in the middle of the ongoing battle, catching a few clones who'd been slow to body flicker away. The funnel of the gigantic tornado abruptly darkened as tons of loose dirt and rock were sucked into it, along with hundreds of lumbering statues. Some were thrown clear of the funnel by collisions with other debris, flung hundreds of yards across the valley to smash against the surrounding boulders. But most were trapped in the funnel for long minutes, lifted a thousand feet or more into the air while cutting winds tore at their substance and smashed them against each other. None survived.

The clones shifted again, and the tornado between them began to grind its way ponderously through the heart of Moryo's army.

"Impressive," Gai admitted. He eyed the shower of stone fragments being thrown from the vortex as it moved, and stepped back into the cave mouth as a boulder the size of a house bounced off the mountainside above them. "Yes, I believe you have this well in hand, Naruto. My team and I will guard the prison, in case the demon attempts to sneak in using earth techniques. Yes, the lower levels should be carefully watched…"

On the other side of the valley, Yomi scowled at the destruction. What exactly were they facing here? Surely no human could perform such a huge technique?

Well, there were stories of such things. But who really believed that the First Hokage had created the Great Konoha Forest with a single jutsu? Let alone those insane stories about the moon. But he'd already checked for illusions, and the monster tornado tearing his army apart was all too real.

"My lord? What do we do now?"

_Don't worry about it_, Moryo replied with a sinister laugh. _The fools are merely playing into my hands. Prepare the Subterranean Journey technique, and we'll come up into the prison from below. They'll never sense our infiltration with all this chakra in the air._


End file.
